All eyes on weather for R-Day parade

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 24

All eyes are literally towards the sky hoping that if the Republic Day parade’s swansong — the fly-past and aerobatics — are not affected by weather, like dense fog or rainy conditions.

Prediction of the Indian Meteorological Department is for fog on January 26, but it is expected to clear out by the time the fly-past is carried out. The past two days have been bright sunny morning over Delhi. The full dress rehearsal on January 23 saw bright blue skies.

To ensure that the fly-past is not hampered by fog, the Indian Air Force has stationed its fighter jets at Bikaner in Rajasthan. Three types of jets — Jaguar, MiG 29 and Sukhoi 30-MKI — have been stationed at Bikaner. Transport planes, like the C-17 and the C130, are stationed at Hindon, just 20 miles east of Delhi. The newly inducted Chinook and Apache AH 64E copters have been moved from the home bases at Chandigarh and Pathankot, respectively, to Hindon.

One of the worst weather conditions in the past few years prevailed in 2015 when it was raining during the parade, the fly-past was carried out then too. Pilots fly no more a 100 metres above the Rajpath and fighter jets, due to their speed, need a certain clear visibility to fly.

Mahesh Palawat from the private weather forecaster Skymet says the fog, if any, will clear out by the time the fly-past is carried out. The time of the fly-past will be after 11:30 am on Janury 26.

Wind speeds will slow down over tomorrow as a western disturbance is approaching with possibility of rain on January 27.