Delhi: City wakes up to chilly New Year’s morning; several trains delayed, IMD issues fog alert

People woke up to a cold wave and thick fog on a lazy Sunday, making it an extremely cold New Year’s morning in the nation’s capital. Locals urged the administration to make the required preparations for the underprivileged or those seeking shelter at night, with the minimum temperature in the Capital recorded at 9°C, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Locals who were suffering from the extreme cold were observed gathering around bonfires to get much-needed warmth from the crackling, leaping flames.

“People living on sidewalks are bearing the brunt of the prevailing cold wave in the national capital. One has to travel a lot in the cold to reach the night shelters in the city. They are situated at a significant distance from each other. Not many can go there in this cold,” a resident told on Monday.
“We had a lot of trouble spending the night in this cold. We collected some litter on the streets to light a bonfire. This bone-chilling winter has only added to our everyday woes,” another man on the street said.
The IMD, meanwhile, put out a warning for ‘dense fog’ in the national capital in the first week of 2024, with the minimum temperature likely to hover between 8 and 9° Celsius.
“The fog layer (encircled patch) over Punjab, north Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northwest Madhya Pradesh, south Uttarkhand, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal is visible in a satellite picture at 06:15 am of January 1,” read a post on the official IMD handle on X.

When visibility is between 0 and 50 meters, the IMD classifies the fog as “very dense,” and when visibility is between 51 and 200 meters, it is classified as “dense.” Additionally, visibility between 201 and 500 meters is deemed “moderate” for fog, and between 501 and 1,000 meters, it is deemed “shallow.” In the meantime, on New Year’s morning, numerous trains to Delhi were delayed due to poor visibility as thick fog covered the whole North Indian belt. The Railways reported that numerous trains headed for the stations in Anand Vihar, Nizamuddin, and New Delhi were four hours late.