NEW DELHI: An extreme cold wave continued to envelop the national capital and its surrounding areas on Friday morning. A thick layer of fog settled over the region, leading to significantly reduced visibility and disruptions in traffic during the morning.
Additonally, air quality plummeted to ‘very poor’ level prompting the authorities to impose GRAP 3.
Today marked the fifth consecutive day of the cold wave in the NCR, with maximum temperatures taking a noticeable dip. The heavy fog made road travel hazardous, prompting caution among commuters.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) also issued an orange alert for Delhi, predicting “dense to very dense fog,” along with partly cloudy skies for the day. The weather forecast indicated a low of 8 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the maximum temperature in the city settled at 21.2 degrees Celsius, 1.9 degrees above average and the minimum temperature was recorded at 7 degrees Celsius, as per the PTI inputs.
The IMD has also forecasted that Delhi might experience light to moderate rain on January 6. Until that day, the visibility in Delhi is expected to be low.
In Noida, all schools have been ordered to close for classes that begin before 8 am due to the adverse weather conditions.
The foggy conditions affected flight operations too. Over 100 flights were delayed at the Delhi airport on Friday morning as visibility dropped to zero in some areas due to dense fog.
Forecasts from the weather department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology suggest that the air quality could worsen further due to unfavourable weather conditions. In response, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has instructed authorities in the Delhi-NCR region to promptly enforce stage 3 restrictions to curb further deterioration.
“In an effort to prevent further deterioration of the air quality and in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s directives, the Sub-Committee on GRAP hereby decide to invoke all actions under Stage III (Severe air quality of Delhi) of the extant schedule of GRAP, with immediate effect, in addition to the stage I and II actions already in force,” read the CAQM order.
