Met sounds fog alert for the week ahead

New Delhi: Dense fog for about half-an-hour in the morning led to several few flight delays by 1-2 hours at the IGI airport.
Fog in cities like Kolkata, Bangalore and Kanpur also led to schedules getting disturbed as incoming flights from these stations were also affected. However, with both runways in use, the congestion was cleared by afternoon. The Met department is predicting some respite from fog on Thursday, though chances of fog on subsequent days are high due to the movement of another western disturbance towards north India.
According to the Met department, the airport witnessed fog between 2 am and 11 am. Shallow fog set in at the airport about 2 am and visibility continued to deteriorate steadily from then on. By 4.30 am, the fog intensified and visibility dropped from 800 m to between 400 and 200 m. At 4.22 am, safeguard procedures had to be implemented which were lifted at 10.30 am. Low visibility procedures were in place between 5.45 am and 10.30 am during which time, the visibility dropped to 100 m at 7.30 am. 96 flights operated during the LVP period. RVR at this point on the main runway was 500 m and on the new runway was 250 m.
R K Jenamani, director in-charge, IGI Met Said: "The airport saw dense fog between 7 am and 8.30 am. Thursday may bring some respite with chances of low visibility in the morning and maybe dense fog for a short while between 7 am and 9 am. However, the subsequent days may witness dense fog for a much longer duration due to an approaching western disturbance.''
Sources said the new runway saw more dense fog than the main runway.
17/12/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008