Cold wave, weather updates: After a brief respite, cold waves and dense fog prevailed this morning in several states and cities like Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
In Rajasthan, minimum temperatures of 4-6 degrees Celsius were recorded at many places in the Bikaner and Jaipur divisions. The weather office has predicted a fall in minimum temperature by 2-4 degree Celsius over most parts of the state during the next 48 hours.
For Delhi, the IMD has issued a yellow alert for Tuesday.
Cold to severe cold wave is likely in many places of Rajasthan from Sunday to Tuesday (17 Jan). On Saturday, Mount Abu recorded the lowest minimum temperature at minus 4 degree Celsius. Sikar's Fatehpur Shekhawati was minus 3.5 degree Celsius and Churu recorded minus 0.7 degrees Celsius.
Today, some flights were delayed due to fog. Amond the flights affected were Delhi-Riyadh, Delhi-Shimla-Kullu, Delhi-Varanasi, Delhi-Dharamshala-Srinagar, Delhi-Shimla- Dharamshala, Delhi-Dehradun. Flight services were also hit on Saturday morning in some cities including Visakhapatnam. Flights coming from Bangalore and Delhi were diverted to Hyderabad due to poor visibility at the airport in Visakhapatnam.
The Indian Railways has cancelled 275 trains due to fog and other reasons. Among the express trains that have been affected are Kaifiat Express (12225), Kumbha Express (12369), Northeast Express (12505), New Delhi-NJP SF Express (12524), Sealdah-Ajmer (12987), New Delhi-Malda Town (14004), and Lichchvi Express (14005).
The central weather forecasting agency has predicted a fresh spell of dense fog and cold wave conditions over northwest India from 15-18 Jan.
In its update on Saturday, the IMD said cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are very likely over some parts of Rajasthan from 15-18 and over Punjab and Haryana-Chandigarh on 16 and 17, and over Delhi during 16-18 Jan.
Cold wave condition in isolated pockets is also very likely over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during 15-18; Punjab and Haryana-Chandigarh on 15 and 18; West Madhya Pradesh on 16 and 17; West Uttar Pradesh on 17 and 18; Saurashtra and Kutch on 15 and 16 and interior Karnataka on 15th January.