Season’s most intense fog hits airport

New Delhi Celebrating the 61st Republic Day, the Capital sat amid zero visibility on Tuesday morning as the season’s most intense fog stretched for over five hours.
The year now looks set to break the record of recent years while counting the highest number of dense fog hours in the month of January: the highest this decade was in January 2003, with 168 hours. This January, Delhi has already seen 148 hours of dense fog.
According to the weatherman, similar or worse conditions are likely to cloud the sky till the first week of February.
At the IGI Airport, flight operations remained suspended for nearly six hours — first due to low visibility and then due to an hour’s closure of airspace for the flypast during the Republic Day parade till about 12.15 pm.
“The spell of dense fog at IGI Airport on Tuesday morning was the worst in terms of intensity,” IGI Met department director-in-charge R K Jenamani said. “The runway visibility was consistently between 50 and 75 metres from 5.30 am to 11 am.”
He said the conditions do not seem to be improving, with a consistent pattern of weak winds over northern India: “This is an extra topical phenomenon when temperatures also continue to be low persistently.”
The Met department predicts the situation might improve after Thursday (January 28). “The incoming western disturbances are becoming more active, leading to an increase in moisture in the air. Humidity is already 100 per cent,” Jenamani said.
While flights can land in near-zero visibility, the mandatory take-off minima to be followed by pilots has been set by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation at 150 metres.
27/01/10 Express India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2010