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At least 11 people were killed and travel chaos unfolded in north India on Wednesday as a band of thick fog left cities, towns and villages in the Indo-Gangetic plains virtually blinded, causing pile-ups on highways, holding up trains, and delaying or diverting flights.
Read here: 11 dead, 32 injured as fog engulfs northern states
The national capital recorded its worst bout of fog so far, experts said, with visibility having begun to plunge from Tuesday night, dropping to zero at the Palam observatorybetween 8am and 10am. Throughout Wednesday, the fog did not lift entirely and the highest visibility recorded was 800m (on a clear day, it is usually around 4,000m). By 10pm, visibility again plummeted to 50m as dense fog returned.
The Capital’s airport had to divert four flights to Jaipur, and at least 100 more arrived after significant delays. Similar disruptions were reported by the Railways, with at least 25 trains arriving late, with some delayed by as much as five hours.
An India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said the fog on Wednesday was the thickest across north India this season. “It developed in the night and morning hours and has lasted a longer duration as compared to Tuesday,” said the official. The visibility plunged to 50 metres in Amritsar at 6pm on Tuesday. It dropped to 50 metres in Lucknow and Agra by 11.30pm. “In Delhi, Safdarjung and Palam have 50-metre visibility. It dropped to 150 metres at Palam at 4.30am and to 50 metres by 7am,” the official said. Later in the day, visibility at Palam began dropping from 5.30pm, according to the IMD.
In a bulletin, the official forecaster predicted dense to very dense fog conditions to “continue during night/morning hours in many parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi during December 27 to 29 morning and in some parts for subsequent 3 days”.
In an advisory, the weather department recommended people in northwest and central India to be careful while driving or taking any form of road transportation, be in touch with airlines, railways and state transport authorities for journey schedules changes.
IMD classifies fog as shallow when visibility is between 500 and 1,000 metres, moderate when it is between 200 and 500 metres, dense when it is between 50 and 200 metres, and very dense when it is 50 metres or lower.
“Following the previous western disturbance that impacted the Western Himalayas, moisture levels increased and there were lower level easterly winds. The wind speed was very low. Together with low temperatures, the conditions became conducive for dense fog. So, we are seeing dense to very dense widespread fog from Pakistan to Uttar Pradesh,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, climate and meteorology at Skymet Weather.
“The intensity of will gradually reduce over the next two or three days. Another western disturbance will impact the Western Himalayan region from December 31 which may bring rain to central and some parts of NW India,” Palawat added.
Heavy spells of fog are not unusual in the winter but they can often arrive suddenly, catching commuters off guard and triggering delays in routine air and rail services. Experts said this is usually due to interaction between different patterns of winds that at times takes hold over the region.
“The upcoming western disturbance is expected to be an active one. There may be interaction between the easterly wave and northwesterly winds. After the WD moves away there is likely to be a drop in minimum temperatures by 2-4 degree C,” said M Mohapatra, director general of IMD on Monday.
On Tuesday, when the first of dense fog spells was recorded, 14 people were killed in accidents and train and flight schedules were hit in three cities.
On Wednesday, a spree of accidents were triggered in Uttar Pradesh by the lack of visibility and claimed the lives of at least nine people. Among these were two students who were going for examinations, two women pilgrims from Punjab, and a local functionary of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
There were accidents on key expressways too, with a pile-up being reported on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida, which connects Delhi to Agra. According to the officials, the incident took place around 8 am on the Agra to Noida lane of the expressway in Dayanatpur area under the Jewar police station limits. As many as 12 vehicles were involved in the pile-up.
Read here: Fog fallout: 20 injured in bus mishap in Tarn Taran, 7 vehicles in Karnal pile-up
A similar pile-up occurred on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) stretch near Bhojpur in Ghaziabad, where four vehicles crashed. Police said neither of the two crashes caused any fatalities.
Similar crashes were reported from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. In Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, two died in an accident between a Rajasthan Roadways bus and an auto rickshaw. In Haryana’s Karnal, at least seven vehicles were involved in a pile-up, and in Punjab, 20 people were hurt when the they bus there in rammed into a parked truck.