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| credit PTI |
At least three persons were killed and about forty others were injured in a variety of incidents owing to the dense fog that blanketed parts of northern India on Tuesday. These mishaps occurred in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. It also spurred the states that were impacted to take action, such as changing the start and end times of school, halting the operation of buses at night, and lowering the speed limit in certain locations.
The Indo-Gangetic plains, including the city of Delhi, were enveloped in a layer of dense to very dense fog for the second morning in a row. This caused the visibility in the city to drop to fifty meters and had an effect on the traffic on both the roads and the trains.
On the other hand, an official at the airport indicated that there was no influence on the operations of the flights in the nation's capital. On Tuesday, there were at least 11 trains that were reported to be running one to five hours behind schedule. Between 5.30 and 7 am local time, an official from the IMD stated that the visibility at both the Palam and Safdarjung airports in Delhi plummeted to a distance of fifty meters.
A dense blanket of fog hangs over several regions of Northern India.
Photos taken by satellites taken early in the morning showed a dense blanket of fog enveloping the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and the northern part of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. After taking notice of the severe fog and accidents caused by it, the administration of Uttar Pradesh made the decision to prohibit the operation of state road buses throughout the night.
On the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, where visibility was reduced owing to severe fog, a collision between a bus and a truck resulted in the death of one person and the injury of 24 others, according to the police.In a second incident, a truck in the Dadri neighborhood of Greater Noida collided with the divider of the highway and flipped over, according to the police. The truck was carrying lentils.Officials announced on Tuesday evening that the upper speed restriction on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway has been cut to 75 kilometers per hour, down from the previous speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour. This change was made because of the decreased visibility caused by the growing fog.The maximum allowable speed of vehicles has also been capped at 65 kilometers per hour on some other routes in Noida, and according to an official statement, motorists who violate the speed limit order will face legal action or a penalty or both. The maximum allowable speed of vehicles has been capped at 65 kilometers per hour.
Temperature dips in Haryana
In the meantime, the temperature in Narnaul, which is located in Haryana, dropped to a low of 4.5 degrees Celsius. The area experienced frigid weather. According to the most recent report from the meteorological agency, the lowest temperature that was recorded in Hisar was 6 degrees Celsius.The thermometer at Bathinda, Punjab, dropped to its lowest point of 3.4 degrees Celsius, making it the coldest place in the state.The temperature dropped to a low of 6.8 degrees Celsius in Amritsar during the night as well. The temperature dropped to a low of 7.6 degrees Celsius in Chandigarh, which serves as the capital city for both states.Over the next 4-5 days, the meteorological service has predicted that conditions ranging from a cold wave to a severe cold wave are likely to occur at some isolated locations in the states of Haryana and Punjab, while dense to extremely dense fog is likely to occur at most locations.
Intensification of the cold wave across Kashmir
Meanwhile, a cold wave that has been sweeping across Kashmir has become more severe on Tuesday as temperatures have fallen several degrees below the freezing point. This comes a day before the beginning of Chilla-i-Kalan, which is the 40-day period of the hardest winter weather.According to these sources, the lowest temperature that was recorded in Srinagar last night was 3.4 degrees Celsius below zero, while the Gulmarg resort in the Baramulla region of north Kashmir recorded a temperature of 4.0 degrees Celsius below zero.In light of the continued forecasted drop in the nighttime low temperature, the meteorological service has issued a forecast calling for colder nights over the next few of days. Around the time of Christmas, there is a chance that some areas of Kashmir will be hit by showers or even a dusting of snow.
