Air: Flight operations are affected by a cold wave, heavy fog, and “very poor”

Air: On the last day of the year, the capital experienced a bitter cold, a heavy fog, and “very poor” air quality on Wednesday.

The highest temperature was 14.2 degrees Celsius, which is 6.2 degrees Celsius below average and the lowest daytime temperature since 2020, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). January 1st is expected to be a mostly overcast day with light rain, and the temperature is expected to be chilly.

According to station-specific statistics, Palam recorded 13.6°C, Lodhi Road 13.4°C, the Ridge 13.8°C, and Ayanagar 13.1°C. According to the IMD, the lowest recorded temperature was 6.4°C, which is 0.4°C below average.

Dense fog caused visibility to drastically decline. Between 6.30 and 7.30 am, Safdarjung recorded the lowest visibility of 50 metres; by 8 am, it had increased to 100 metres. Between 4 and 7.30 am, Palam observed visibility as low as 50 meters; by 8 am, it had improved to 150 meters. Two planes headed for Delhi were rerouted to Jaipur, and at least 150 flights were canceled. “A total of 79 arrivals and 71 departures were canceled due to poor visibility caused by fog,” the airport in Delhi said. The airline with the most cancellations was Air India. “We had to cancel 34 outgoing and 34 incoming flights on Wednesday,” an airline insider said. International cancellations were nonexistent.

The ratings for air quality remained within the “very poor” category. The Air Quality Index (AQI) was 373 on a 24-hour average. According to a station-by-station study, 14 monitoring stations had “severe” AQI, while 23 had “very poor” AQI. According to CPCB, ITO had the lowest AQI at 433 in the evening.