Red alert over dense fog, cold in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana on January 1

Delhi and parts of Punjab are likely to wake up to dense fog and cold conditions on New Year 2024 as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert in these places for January 1.

'Cold day' conditions with dense fog are likely in Punjab's Amritsar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Pathankot, Patiala, Rupnagar and Tarn Taran districts.

Besides, an orange alert has been declared in Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for January 1. The weather agency has issued an alert over the forecast of dense fog and cold to extremely cold conditions.

"Dense to very dense fog conditions (visibility <50 m) are very likely to prevail in some parts of Uttar Pradesh during 31st December 2023 night to January 2, 2024 morning and in isolated pockets thereafter for subsequent 2–3 days," the IMD said.

In no respite from bone-chilling winters, the temperatures are further going to dip in these states as the new year kicks in. Further, the weather department said that the mercury would plunge further in the first week of January 2024, with temperatures hovering between 9 and 6 degrees Celsius.

As per the IMD, 'very dense fog' is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, 51 and 200 metres is 'dense', 201 and 500 metres 'moderate' and 501 and 1,000 metres 'shallow'.

The blanket of fog and compromised visibility pose significant concerns for commuters and residents in the affected areas.

According to the IMD forecast, the situation is grave in several regions with visibility measuring a mere 25 metres in Ambala, 50 metres in Bikaner, Patiala and Chandigarh. Meanwhile, Punjab's Amritsar and Hisar in Haryana recorded a visibility of 200 metres while Jhansi in UP recorded 50 metres visibility.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand may witness dense fog conditions (visibility 50-200 metres) in the early morning hours/morning hours from December 31 (Sunday) to January 4 (Thursday), according to the IMD.

A fall by 2-3°C in maximum temperatures was likely over many parts of Central and Northwest India during the next two and no significant change in minimum temperatures may occur in the rest of the country.

Light isolated rainfall was predicted in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh from January 1-3 due to lower-level easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal, the IMD said.