North India reels under intense cold; dense fog leads to zero visibility in several cities: PICS

IMD has issued a red alert for Delhi till Monday and warned of severe cold conditions in parts of North India, including Delhi. The met department predicted that cold waves and cold day conditions are likely to continue over northwest India during the next two days.

Due to the continuation of prevailing light winds and high moisture near the surface over Indo-Gangetic plains, dense to very dense fog very likely to continue in some parts during night and morning hours over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and adjoining north Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh during next 2 days and dense fog in isolated pockets thereafter for subsequent 3 days over the region, said IMD.

IMD has predicted isolated light rainfall over Punjab and Haryana on January 11and January 12, 2023.

 The Delhi government on Sunday advised all private schools to remain closed till January 15 due to the cold wave in the national capital. "In continuation to the DOE`s (Directorate of Education) earlier circular, all private schools of Delhi are advised to remain close till January 15, 2023, in the wake of cold wave prevailing in Delhi," the circular read.

"Due to the approaching Western Disturbance on 10th January, minimum temperatures are very likely to rise by 2-4°C over many parts of Northwest India after 2 days," the IMD predicted on Sunday (January 8).

Due to the dense fog conditions in Northern India, 29 trains are running late on Monday (January 9). According to a statement by the railway ministry, 335 trains were delayed to weather conditions while 88 trains had to be canceled on Sunday (January 8).

According to IMD, extremely dense fog conditions engulfed the northern parts of the country on Monday (January 9) and Agra, Lucknow in UP and Bhatinda in Punjab recorded zero metre visibility due to thick layer of fog. Meanwhile, Safdarjung and Palam in Delhi recorded 25 and 50-metre visibility respectively.