Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Delhiites experienced another cold day as bone-chilling icy winds continued to sweep the city with the temperatures remaining below average Saturday. But heavy fog subsided after almost a week.

At 1,500 metres in the morning, the visibility improved drastically compared to Friday when it was less than 50 metres, leading to several flights and trains being delayed or cancelled.

However, the delays and cancellations continued Saturday due to fog as well as what airport operators said were operational and technical reasons.

According to the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) website at 6.30 p.m., 33 domestic flights and four international flights had been delayed while one international and nine domestic flights had been cancelled.

“Fog in Delhi is not the only reason behind the delays and cancellations, but bad weather at destination airports and operational and technical reasons were also to be blamed,” an airport official said.

According to the website of the Northern Railway at 6 p.m., 45 trains were rescheduled or delayed while 39 were cancelled.

The day’s minimum temperature was recorded two notches below average at 5.4 degrees while the maximum was recorded three notches below average at 18.4 degrees, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS.

The maximum and minimum humidity was recorded at 94 and 44 percent respectively.

The chill forced many to remain indoors and small bonfires to beat the chill were a common sight in the city. “We have stopped venturing out in the evenings on weekends for the last couple of weeks due to the extreme chill,” 34-year-old homemaker Aarti Singh said.

The IMD has forecast similar weather Sunday with fog in the morning and a partly cloudy sky during the day. The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 19 and 6 degrees Celsius respectively.