50 flights delayed due to fog

A sudden drop in visibility at the IGI Airport in two spells on Monday saw three flights diverted to Jaipur and about 50 delayed by 15 minutes to an hour. Met officials say that while shallow fog is expected to occur on Tuesday as well, with visibility likely to come down to 300m, no significant change in weather is expected before January 11.The western disturbance that caused rain over Delhi is moving away. Strong northwesterly winds, that are quite cold, are blowing over the plains of northwest India and will bring down the minimum temperature by a few degrees. However, not much change is expected in the maximum temperature. The day will remain clear and there is no possibility of rain as of now, said RK Jenamani, director in-charge, IGI Met.

At the airport, visibility fell for the first time due to dense fog at 3am. The runway visual range (RVR) dropped on the main runway to 100m, which was under maintenance at that time. A Jet Airways plane and a Kingfisher flight, both coming from Dubai, were diverted. The situation improved an hour later, but at 7am visibility dropped to CAT-III levels again.Monday's temperature dropped slightly from a day earlier, but was still on the higher side. The maximum temperature was down to 22 degrees Celsius while the minimum dipped to 10.6, two degrees above normal.The maximum temperature was 2-6 degrees above normal over several parts of Punjab, Haryana, UP, Orissa and Gangetic West Bengal on Monday. With the WD now moving away, rain and snow will occur over parts of J&K till Tuesday and then decrease. Some areas in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh will also see some snow. The minimum temperature will drop by 2-3 degrees over plains of northwest India,said a Met official.