North India cold wave live: Record-breaking 2.1 degrees Celsius in Hisar

12.30pm: Cold wave sweeps Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh

Intense cold wave sweeping Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh continued unabated in most parts with mercury plummeting to record breaking minus 2.1 degrees Celsius at Hisar today.

Normal life was also disrupted in the region as visibility level dropped due to foggy conditions at several places in the two states this morning.

Hisar recorded seven degrees below normal, its lowest in several years, a MeT official here said. Amritsar and Adampur in Punjab also reeled under intense cold recording respective minimums of 0.3 deg C and 1.5 deg C. Among other places, Karnal experienced a cold night at 2 deg C, down five notches, while Bhiwani’s low settled at 2.6 deg C. Ambala registered a low of 6.1 deg C.

Chandigarh (4.7 C), Patiala (4.6 C) and Ludhiana (4.7 C) recorded near similar below normal minimum temperatures as cold conditions continued unabated.

12.20 pm: Overnight snowfall in Kashmir gives respite to residents

The overnight snowfall in Kashmir led to an increase in night temperatures by several notches in most places of the Valley and Ladakh region, giving a brief respite to residents.

Srinagar, the summer capital of J&K, received 2.3 mm snowfall and recorded a minimum temperature of minus 2.3 degrees Celsius, up by almost two notches from the previous night’s minus 4.2 degrees Celsius, an official of the MeT Department said here.

PTI

12.05pm: Fog in Rajasthan disrupts plane, train schedules

Cold conditions continued unabated in Rajasthan where fog also affected normal life with some trains running late.

Foggy conditions have disrupted normal life in Rajasthan affecting rail and road traffic where vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace and some trains running behind the schedule. Churu in the desert state recorded a night temperature of 1.6 degrees C, while Pilani and Chittorgarh recorded a minimum of 2.5 and 5.7 degrees Celsius respectively.

PTI

11.45 am: Delhi fog leads to chaos at Lucknow airport

At least 20 flights bound for New Delhi were diverted to Chaudhary Charan Singh airport  in Lucknow on Sunday due to dense fog in the national capital, airport officials said Monday.

The Lucknow airport tarmac has the capacity to accommodate 24 planes at a time, and with the sudden landing of 20 flights diverted from Delhi, the airport was chock-a-block with planes.

The private carriers had to bring in their ground staff to deal with the sudden rush of aircraft and flurry of passengers.

With inputs from IANS

10.30 am: 44 trains running late, five have been rescheduled

According to the Northern Railway, 44 trains en-route to Delhi were running late and five have been rescheduled.

Commuters travelling from Delhi to the satellite towns of Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon in Haryana faced a harrowing time.

With inputs from PTI

10am: 150 flights arriving or departing from Delhi have been cancelled or diverted

Around 150 flights, either arriving or departing from Delhi have been cancelled or diverted due to extremely poor visibility at the airport due to dense fog Between 8pm last night and 8am this morning,, airport officials said.

Around 51 domestic and international flights departing  39 scheduled to arrive, between 8 pm last night and 8 am this morning, have been cancelled.

A further 52 incoming flights have been diverted to Amritsar, Lucknow and other destinations, they said.

A SpiceJet flight from Goa to Delhi, with 132 passengers and four crew onboard, had to make an emergency landing at around 9.50 PM as it ran short on fuel.

Lounges at the airport were packed with passengers who complained that they were not given information about the flight status.

Long queues were seen at airline counters for collection of refunds for cancelled flights or to get a seat on any early flight.

Around 15 flights coming to Delhi were diverted to Amritsar.

People could be seen moving from one counter to another in search of information or tickets.

“I had to wait for about three hours before the airline decided to cancel my flight to Mumbai. Now I am waiting in the queue to get a refund,” said Anil Kumar.

One of the passengers Anna, who was to arrive in Delhi from Hyderabad by an Air India flight which was subsequently diverted to Amritsar, said they have no clue when their flight will leave for Delhi. “I have been waiting through the night at Amritsar airport. No idea when our flight will leave for Delhi. Authorities have told us that it might take off after noon,” she said over phone from Amritsar.

Delhi airport is equipped with two CAT-III B complaint runways, which enables a CAT-III B trained pilot to land a CAT-III B complaint plane when the runway visibility is merely 75 metres.

Yesterday, the visibility remained poor during the whole day which led to delay in schedule of around 206 domestic and international flights.

Flight operations resumed today around 1 AM, when the landings started. Priority was given to international flights, as most of them operate at night, they said.

Though the visibility was poor, planes were landing using CAT III B ILS and the take off started around 4 AM, when runway visibility improved to more than 150 metres on the main runway (28/10), officials said.

With inputs from PTI

January 5 updates end here

9pm: Delhi hit by severe fog, IGI airport temporarily shut down

The national capital experienced the season’s worst fog on Sunday evening with the maximum temperature settling one notch below average at 19.3 degrees Celsius. Similar weather is expected today, the Met office said. According to a report on  IBN-Live , the Indira Gandhi International Airport was forced to shut down temporarily on Monday due to the fog.

The report says that, “With the visibility below 50 metres early morning, about 90 flights stand cancelled.” The report adds that 30 trains were cancelled from the New Delhi railway station on Monday.

A met department official said: “Delhi experienced season’s worst fog Sunday evening after 8.30 p.m. The maximum visibility at Safdarjung was 600 metres and 50 metres at the Palam airport. Runways at airport are likely to become un-operational by 10 pm.” The maximum and the minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 16 and 6 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Sunday morning was moderate with the minimum temperature settling a notch above the season’s average at 7.8 degrees Celsius. The humidity was 75 percent.

A light fog enveloped the city in the morning but flights remained unaffected. Around 40 trains coming towards Delhi were running late while 10 trains were rescheduled due to fog in parts of north India on Sunday, an official of the Northern Railway said.

Saturday’s maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded at 18.5 degrees Celsius (two notches below season’s average) and 6.4 degrees Celsius (a notch below the season’s average), respectively.

With inputs from PTI