Considering the prevailing weather scenario in Delhi, the Met Department has reportedly issued a yellow alert warning of dense fog in the early morning hours. Owing to severe snowfall in several districts, at least 223 roads, including three national highways, were closed in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday.
On Christmas eve, the northern region of the country continued to feel the chill with Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand receiving fresh snowfall, while rain lashed parts of Rajasthan and Delhi amid cold wave conditions across the region.
Dense fog enveloped parts of Delhi on Wednesday morning, reducing visibility to 100 metres in the early hours. The city's air quality index has been recorded in the 'very poor' range at 8AM on Wednesday with 394 in Mundka, 377 at Jahangirpuri, 372 at Ashok Vihar amongst several other places. An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good,' 51-100 'satisfactory,' 101-200 'moderate,' 201-300 'poor,' 301-400 'very poor,' and 401-500 'severe.'
Considering the prevailing weather scenario, the Met Department has reportedly issued a yellow alert for today warning of dense fog in the early morning hours. The mercury on Wednesday morning settled at a low of 8.4 degrees Celsius, 1.5 notches below the seasonal average, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Earlier, in a X post, the Delhi airport said while landings and takeoffs continue, flights which are not CAT III compliant could be affected.
"Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted." the airport said in its fog alert issued at 5:45 am.
Owing to severe snowfall in several districts, at least 223 roads, including three national highways, were closed in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday. Signficant snowfall was recorded in the Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti and the higher reaches of Shimla, Kullu, Mandi, Chamba and Sirmaur districts.
In another important development, Shimla Hotel and Tourism Stakeholders' Association president MK Seth told PTI that hotel occupancy in Shimla was at more than 70 per cent. The snowfall led to a 30-percentage point increase in room bookings, he added.
According to Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Disaster) Onkar Sharma, tourists in about 500 vehicles stranded near the Atal Tunnel were safely rescued till late on Monday while four people died in accidents during the past 24 hours and several suffered injuries due to vehicles skidding at some places.
The weather office has issued an 'orange' warning for severe cold in Bilaspur, Una, Hamirpur and Mandi and 'yellow' warning for dense fog over parts of the Bhakra dam reservoir area and the Balh Valley in Mandi till Thursday.
Amid the persisting cold wave conditions, the higher reaches of Kashmir received fresh snowfall on Tuesday across the valley. The minimum temperature plummeted several degrees below the freezing point, officials said.
They said light snowfall was recorded last night in the tourist resort of Sonamarg and a few other areas in the higher reaches of the valley.
The night temperature settled at minus 7.4 degrees Celsius in Gulmarg, minus 6.2 degrees in Qazigund, while Konibal, a hamlet in the Pampore region, was the coldest in the Valley at minus 8.5 degrees Celsius.
The Met department has predicted a further dip in minimum temperature by two to three degrees in the next couple of days till December 26.
Cold conditions prevailed in parts of Rajasthan due to rain and the influence of a fresh western disturbance.
According to the meteorological centre here, very light rain was recorded in some places in eastern Rajasthan and light rain was recorded in parts of western Rajasthan in the 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
Hanumangarh in Bhadra recorded the highest rainfall at 9 mm, the weather department said.
Some parts of the state witnessed fog. Dungarpur was the coldest place in the state with a minimum temperature of 5 degrees Celsius.
Bikaner and Jaipur divisions witnessed cloudy skies.
A fresh western disturbance will be active in the region on December 26-27. Its effect will be seen in Udaipur, Kota, Ajmer and Bharatpur divisions and the Shekhawati area, the meteorological centre said.