NEW DELHI, JANUARY 9: North and northwest India continued to reel under cold wave on Monday as dense fog adversely affected air, rail and road traffic and led to two road accidents in Uttar Pradesh killing seven people.
Delhi saw cold wave conditions for the fifth consecutive day on Monday as very dense fog reduced visibility to just 25 metres, officials said. The cold wave spell in Delhi has been so intense that the national capital has recorded a minimum temperature lower than that of most places in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand for five days on the trot.
Meteorologists attribute the long spell of intense cold to a large gap between two western disturbances, which meant frosty winds from the snow-clad mountains blew in for a longer-than-usual period.
The visibility levels dropped to 50 metres at the Palam observatory, near the IGI Airport, and 25 metres at the Safdarjung observatory and the Ridge weather station, an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
A total of 267 trains were delayed due to bad weather, a railway official said.
Five flights were diverted and 30 delayed due to the foggy conditions, officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport said.
In Rajasthan, a dense layer of fog enveloped some parts of the state as cold wave conditions prevailed in the state. A MeT department spokesperson said there was no major change in minimum temperatures, even though a slight rise in mercury was witnessed in Jaipur and Bikaner divisions.
On Sunday night, Karauli and Fatehpur were recorded as the coldest, with the minimum temperatures at 3.2 and 3.5 degrees Celsius, respectively.
