National

Cold wave kills two in Delhi

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JAN. 7. The cold wave sweeping North India claimed two lives in the Capital today. A 50-year-old man died of exposure on the pavement near YWCA office and a handicapped person was found dead on his three-wheeler on Shahjahan Road.

The city shivered under the piercing cold, as the minimum temperature was 6.1 degrees Celsius and the maximum 12 degrees.

A thick fog enveloped the city almost throughout the day with the sun refusing to come out. A steady chill breeze compounded the discomfiture. The dip in temperature is due to the northern winds blowing over the area.

The Met office today said: " the cold wave conditions will continue for the next couple of days, accompanied by heavy fog. Though rain is not expected in Delhi over the next few days, other places in North India, including Jammu and Kashmir, might receive some rain." The fog resulted in diversion of 12 flights at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and operations were disrupted till noon.

Meanwhile, the early arrival of thick fog at here on Tuesday night resulted in diversion of 12 flights. Till about noon the remained, but operations seem to have been affected more on Monday night than on Tuesday morning.

According to Most airlines have rescheduled their flights. "Usually fog sets in around midnight these days and continues till 10 a.m. Sometimes visibility is beyond 400 metres for an hour or so — between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Based on the general trend, airlines have either rescheduled or combined flights," a senior official said. This had lessened in the number of flights being diverted or delayed.

But on Tuesday night, the fog surprised the flight operators and visibility dropped drastically after 10 a.m. All 11 domestic flights that were diverted had actually queued-up for landing before midnight, hoping that the fog would set in a little later. The weather deceived them all as fog descended sooner than expected.

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