Chandigarh: A foggy, chilly start to New Year at 11.8°C

It was a chilly and foggy start to the new year as the day temperature dropped to 11.8°C on Monday, from 12.4°C on Sunday.
This was also the season’s second ‘cold day’, which is declared when the maximum temperature goes between 4.5 to 6.4 degrees below normal and the minimum goes below 10°C. On Monday, the maximum temperature was 6.4 degrees below normal.
As per India Meteorological Department (IMD), cold day conditions will continue for the next two to three days and dense fog is also likely to continue in the mornings.
The city had recorded a ‘severe cold day’ on Sunday as the maximum temperature was 7.4 degrees below normal.
City colder than Shimla
The day temperature of Chandigarh continued to be colder than many hill stations of Himachal Pradesh for the second day in a row. The maximum temperature of Shimla was 15.5°C, Dharamshala was 21°C and Chandigarh was almost as cold as Kufri where the maximum temperature was 10.5°C.
As per Shivinder Singh, scientist at IMD Chandigarh, the cold day conditions are a result of dense fog in the city which continued for the fifth day in a row. “Fog is keeping sunlight from getting to the city. It can be lifted because of wind which is hard to predict but we expect that dense fog will persist in the region for the next three to four days,” he said.
On Monday morning, the visibility remained between 50 metres and 200 metres which is classified as dense fog as per IMD. The minimum temperature fell from 9.7°C on Sunday to 9.2°C, two degrees above normal. Over the next three days, the maximum temperature will remain around 12°C while the minimum temperature will remain around 9°C.
5 flights cancelled
Five flights, including four departure flights, at Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Mohali, were cancelled due to adverse weather conditions and low visibility on Monday.
These include: IndiGo flights to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Bengaluru. Other than this, an early morning flight from Pune was cancelled due to poor weather.
Five other flights were also delayed, including one that was to leave for Dubai and another that was headed to Srinagar.
On Monday, while visibility at the airport was recorded to be 800 m, the runway visual range (RVR) is reported to be 2,000 m.
(With inputs from Nikhil Sharma in Mohali)