Biting cold, dense fog persist in Chandigarh; trains running late, flights hit

Chandigarh, January 19

There was no respite for city residents from the cold wave conditions with most part of the day remaining cloudy on Friday. To make the matters worse, the bone-chilling weather coupled with dense fog is likely to prevail for the next 4-5 days.

Cloudy days in UT, clear skies in Shimla

• City’s maximum temperature of 12.6°C was 6°C below normal, but minimum 8.5°C was a notch above normal
• As per forecast, bone-chilling weather coupled with dense fog is likely to prevail for next 4-5 days
• An official says UT was colder as there was no sunshine in city. In contrast, it was clear sky in Shimla with bright sunshine
• Experts have warned of lung-related health issues as dense fog contains harmful pollutants

The prevailing weather has adversely affected the train traffic as well as flight operations. Several trains were either delayed or rescheduled. The New Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi arrived at the Chandigarh railway station after a delay of 26 minutes at 8.56 pm, against its scheduled arrival of 8.30 pm. The New Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi that departs at 7.15 pm was rescheduled to 9.15 pm. Similarly, the Dehradun-Amritsar Express reached the city at 4.15 am against its scheduled arrival of 2.32 am.

The morning Kalka-New Delhi Shatabdi departed 10 minutes late from Chandigarh and reached New Delhi after a delay of 46 minutes at 11:06 am against its scheduled arrival of 10:20 am. The Jan Shatabdi Express reached the city at 8.15 am after a delay of 42 minutes. The Paschim Express (Amritsar-Mumbai Central) reached city 3 hours and 21 minutes late at 3.31 pm.

The Netaji Express reached the station after a delay of 4 hours and 36 minutes at 6.11 am, against its usual arrival of 1.35 am. The Chandigarh-New Delhi Shatabdi, which leaves at 12.05 pm, was rescheduled to 2.05 pm.

Similarly, 14 flights were cancelled and 16 delayed due to fog and low visibility at Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Chandigarh, on Friday. The early flight morning flight arrival from Pune and afternoon and evening flights from Jaipur were cancelled. The departures to Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chennai were also cancelled. No flight arrived at the airport after 8:12 pm. The last flight to depart from the airport was to Kolkata at 8:54 pm. All four flight arrivals after 10 pm were cancelled. Several flights were behind schedule by one to two hours.

The Meteorological Department has predicted dense to very dense fog in the morning and partly cloudy sky later on January 20 and dense to very dense fog in the morning and clear sky later on January 21.

As per the department, mainly dry weather is very likely to prevail over the city during the next 4-5 days. No large change in minimum temperatures during the next two days is expected with slight rise by 2°C thereafter.

According to the Met Department, the city’s maximum temperature was recorded at 12.6°C, which is six degrees below normal. Similarly, the minimum temperature stood at 8.5°C, which was a notch above normal.

The city was on Friday colder than Shimla, as the maximum temperature in the capital city of Himachal Pradesh was recorded at 13°C. An official said the UT was colder as there was no sunshine in the city, but it was a clear sky in Shimla with bright sunshine.

The department has warned of lung-related health issues as dense fog contains particulate matter and other pollutants and in case of exposure it gets lodged in the lungs, clogging them and decreasing their functional capacity, which increases episodes of wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath.

Long-time exposure to dense fog may cause respiratory problem among people having asthma bronchitis. It may also cause eye irritation and related problems.