A heavy fog that has characterized the weather in the Indian city of New Delhi of late has again delayed flights on Monday while a cold wave has forced Indian authorities to defer school reopening to another week as visibility fell and cars drove with their hazard lights on.
Passengers at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi have been told to contact their airlines for updates on flights and data from private flight trackers have also shown several flights had been delayed due to the fog.
A “dense to very dense fog conditions” will hang over many parts of Delhi and other states including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, until Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.
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The IMD said that power lines could trip in areas with dense fog and also warned that air, road and train traffic could be affected in the two days and people could suffer from lung-related health problems.
Delhi, a city of 20 million people, has already extended winter holidays for many schools by a week. Many private schools were to reopen on Monday. The city recorded a minimum temperature of 5 degrees Celsius on Monday. The lowest for Sunday was 3.8 degrees Celsius, which the IMD said was 3 degrees below normal for this time of year.
A cold wave is declared in the plains of India when the minimum temperature dips to 4 degrees Celsius or falls 4.5 degrees below normal to 10 degrees Celsius or below.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
