Madhya Pradesh is experiencing foggy and cloudy weather in the New Year, leading to cold day conditions in northern parts of the state and impact on flights and trains operations. The nights are, however, remaining relatively warm, giving people some relief.
The weather office has predicted light rainfall for parts of state from January 3 onwards owing to activation of a fresh western disturbance. This means that fog and cold day conditions will continue in several parts of the state.
Capital Bhopal is also likely to experience light rainfall, fog and consequent cold day conditions in another two to three days, senior scientist with Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Bhopal, Ved Prakash Singh told THE WEEK.
After the rainfall conditions clear, minimum temperatures would see a significant drop in the state, leading to typical peak winter conditions.
Dense fog envelopes
Meanwhile, for the past three days, several parts of the state have been experiencing dense to very dense fog.
An RMC report based on INSAT-3DR observation on Tuesday morning said that dense fog with isolated very dense fog occurred in Gwalior, Nivari, Tikamgarh, Ashoknagar, East Shivpuri, Vidisha, Rajgarh and Bhopal.
Shallow to Moderate fog was observed in Guna, Bhind, Datia, Sheopur Kalan, West Shivpuri, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Ratlam, Ujjain, Agar, Shajapur, Dewas, Jhabua, North Dhar, North Indore, Badwani, Sehore, Raisen, Sagar, Chhatarpur, Panna, Damoh, Satna, Rewa, Mauganj, Narsingpur and Mandla districts.
Due to this, the minimum visibility was reduced to 10 meter in Bhopal Airport; 100 meter in Gwalior; 50-200 meter in Tikamgarh; 200 meter in Damoh and Khajuraho; 200-500 meter in Guna, Ratlam, Ujjian, Shivpuri, Sagar, Rewa and Mandla; and 500 meter in Datia districts.
The fog conditions in Bhopal has impacted flight and train schedules. The Air India flight from Delhi to Bhopal landed 2.05 hours late while the Delhi-Bhopal Indigo flight came in 1.05 hours late on Tuesday.
Trains, especially those coming in from North India are running as much as 23 hours late at Bhopal. Patalkot Express was reported 14 hours late, Kushinagar Express – two hours, Nanded Express – four hours, Amritsar Express – four hours, Telangana Express – 12 hours, Karnataka Express – seven hours, Dakshin Express – five hours, Tulsi Express – nine hours, Punjab Mail – five hours, Kerela Express – 11 hours, Andhra Pradesh Express – 12 hours, Gondwana Express – 21 hours, Sachkhand Express and Rapti Sagar Express – 23 hours late.
Gwalior experiences severe cold day
On Monday, Gwalior experienced severe cold day with a maximum temperature of 13.7 degrees Celsius and minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius and Khajuraho in Chhatarpur experienced cold day conditions with maximum temperature of 16 degrees Celsius and minimum of 10 degrees Celsius.
The other towns with very low maximum (day) temperatures were Datia – 13.7 degrees, Piparsama in Prithvipur – 14.2 degrees, Tikamgarh 5– 10 degrees and Panwar in Prithvipur – 14.2 degrees.
Other towns with low minimum (night) temperatures included Kalyanpur in Shahdol – 10.1, Rewa – 10.4 and Datia – 10.5 degrees.
Bhopal reported a maximum temperature of 26.8 – normal for the season, and a minimum of 13.3 degrees – 3.1 degrees above normal. Indore reported maximum temperature of 27.9 degrees (normal) and minimum of 15.3 degrees – 5.4 degrees above normal for the season.