By IANS
New Delhi : People of the national capital city were battered by rain, fog and chilly winds Wednesday even as the Met Office showed data to say that the cold is actually waning.
Overnight rain and heavy fog in the morning belied the minimum temperature of 8.8 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the year.
The mercury has been steadily rising in the past two days, bringing considerable respite to the people after the bitter cold of nearly a fortnight.
Tuesday saw a minimum of 8 degrees Celsius while Monday was 6.2 degrees Celsius. But the winds and an overcast day took the sting out of the rise in mercury as people still felt the bitter cold.
Thick fog cover led to more than 10 flights being cancelled and over 150 delayed in and out of Delhi. According to airport officials, the safeguard procedures were implanted around 5.30 a.m., when the runway visual range (RVR) fell below 1,000 metres allowing the use of only single runway.
“Around 9 a.m. the RVR further fell to 100 metres allowing only CAT-III B compliant aircraft to take off. The use of single runaway was restricted for more than five hours leading to delays, cancellations and diversion of both domestic and international flights,” an airport official told IANS.
Flight operations limped back to normal around 11.05 a.m. The officials said during the safeguard procedure only 39 domestic and international flights could operate from the airport.
Five international flights were diverted to Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Karachi, and 13 Delhi-bound domestic flights were diverted to Jaipur, Mumbai and nearby airports.
Nearly 150 flights of Kingfisher, Jet, Indigo, Air Deccan, Indian and SpiceJet bound for Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Nagpur and Ahmedabad were delayed for over three hours leading to a ripple effect and a huge backlog. Passengers had to spend nearly one-two hours aboard for their flights to take off.
Train services and vehicular movements also were affected severely in the capital. People were found struggling to steer through the fog-engulfed city roads.
“It took me nearly two hours to reach the airport from my Dwarka home that generally takes only 20 minutes. The traffic was crawling due to dense fog,” said Neha Sehgal, an MNC executive.
The Met office forecasts a fall in minimum temperatures of 2-4 degrees Celsius for the northern region after Feb 9. More rain or thundershowers are also forecast for the region in the next two days till Friday.
The lowest minimum temperature in the plains was 1.9 degrees Celsius recorded at Churu in Rajasthan.
It was not just Delhi but the financial capital of the country – Mumbai – too chilled like it has never before in the past 40 years.
Minimum temperature in Mumbai slipped to 9.8 while in Aurangabad it was 10 degrees Celsius, the lowest in almost four decades for both the cities.
According to Mumbai weather bureau, the growing chill and the consequent cold wave are attributed to the strong northerly winds lashing across parts of the state.
“The temperature in Mumbai and the state is expected to remain below normal for another week,” weather bureau director K. Sathidevi told IANS.
The normal temperatures recorded in Mumbai during February every year are around 17 degrees Celsius, she added.
Nashik and Mahabaleshwar, Maharashtra’s grape and strawberry capitals respectively, also recorded the lowest temperatures.
While the mercury plummeted to 5.8 in Nashik, the state’s highest hill resort Mahabaleshwar stood at 8.1 degrees Celsius.
The northern regions of the country received their regular share of snowfall. The higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh including Shimla awoke to a fresh spell of heavy snowfall, further intensifying the cold spell.
Traffic movement was disrupted in parts of the city due to snow on the road. Jakhu, the highest point in the resort town, recorded eight inches of snow. Snowfall was also reported from Chail, Kasauli, Manali and Dalhousie.
Snowfall is forecast at many places in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during next 48 hours till Friday.
The following are the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in major cities for the 24 hours till Wednesday morning, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average.
City Maximum Temperature Minimum Temperature Rainfall
(C) (C) (mm)
Delhi 17.5 (-6) 8.8 (0) 2.7
Mumbai 24.0 (-7) 9.4 (-7) Nil
Chennai 30.8 (+2) 22.1 (+1) Nil
Kolkata 26.9 (-2) 18.6 (+3) Nil
Ahmedabad 23.3 (-7) 10.7 (-4) Nil
Bangalore 28.5 (0) 18.2 (+2) Nil
Bhopal 24.1 (-4) 10.2 (-2) Nil
Bhubaneswar 27.7 (-3) 17.9 (0) Nil
Chandigarh 12.8 (-9) 7.4 (-1) Nil
Dehradun 20.2 (-1) 10.0 (+3) 3.2
Panaji 29.7 (-1) 16.5 (-3) Nil
Guwahati 25.0 (-1) 10.9 (0) Nil
Hyderabad 29.4 (+1) 20.4 (+4) Nil
Jaipur 20.8 (-3) 4.1 (-6) Nil
Lucknow 24.4 (0) 10.0 (+2) Nil
Nagpur 29.6 (-1) 18.0 (+4) Nil
Patna 25.1 (0) 14.3 (+3) Nil
Pune 26.3 (-5) 8.4 (-3) Nil
Srinagar 2.4 (-5) -0.4 (+1) 25.5
Thiruvananthapuram 33.0 (+2) 23.0 (0) Nil