Vibha Sharma
New Delhi, December 20
Dense to very dense fog engulfed North India, including Chandigarh, Punjab and Delhi, for the second morning in a row, affecting rail, air, and road traffic movement.
Bathinda and Amritsar reported lowest visibility— ‘zero metre’ —at 0000 hours IST, according to the IMD. Around O530 hours, Bathinda continued to report zero visibility while Amritsar improved to 25 metre.
Bathinda and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh continued with nil visibility till 0830 hours.
Satellite imagery showed a layer of dense to very dense fog over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, north Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
However, an improvement in fog situation and visibility is expected around December 22 night and December 23 morning due to decrease in relative humidity at lower tropospheric levels over Indo Gangetic Plains.
The IMD said dense to very dense fog conditions will continue over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh during next two days and decrease in intensity thereafter.
Apart from pollutants near the surface, the weather office attributed the condition to moisture and light winds at lower tropospheric levels over IGP.
Meanwhile, due to dry north/north westerly winds from Himalayas, cold wave conditions are likely to continue in isolated pockets over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan for the next three-four days, it added.
Very dense fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metre, 51 and 200 is dense, 201 and 500 moderate, and 501 and 1,000 shallow.
Lowest visibility reported at 0830 hours
Bathinda, Bareilly: Zero metre
Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Ganganagar: 25 metre
Delhi (Safdarjung, Palam), Ambala, Chandigarh, Hissar, Bhiwani, Karnal, Meerut, Fursatganj, Varanasi: 50 metre
Lucknow and Agra: 200 metre
