New Delhi:
Delhiites woke up to a cold morning on Thursday with dense fog enveloping the capital once again and the visibility falling to 50 metres in the morning. The minimum temperature dropped to 4.8 degrees Celsius, down from yesterday's figure of 5.6 degrees.
"The maximum temperature is likely to stay around 17 degrees," weather officials told IANS. The maximum temperature on Wednesday was 15.5 degrees -- five notches below the average -- and minimum settled at 5.6 degrees.
The fog led to flight delays in the morning. Flights, however, began taking off once the fog cleared at about 10 am.
IGI Airport authorities maintained that the delays were due to bad weather in the destination cities like Chandigarh, Kolkata, Amritsar and Lucknow. Four flights, including an international one, were cancelled due to operational reasons, officials said.
Yesterday, a thick blanket of fog had delayed nearly 250 flights and flights were unable to take off for more than five hours.
Dense fog also paralysed air services in Kolkata, where no flights could take off or land in the morning. Services have since resumed.
Rail services were also hit with about 17 trains running behind schedule in Delhi.
The Met office has also predicted a foggy morning tomorrow with the temperature oscillating between four and 18 degrees Celsius.
Other parts of north India continue to be in the grip of a severe cold wave. In Rajasthan, temperatures in most parts of the state have fallen by 4 to 6 degrees Celsius in the past 48 hours and the government has instructed schools not to open before 10 am.
(With inputs from agencies)