Overview
- Visibility dropped to about 50 metres at IGI/Palam during early hours, forcing CAT III operations and contributing to more than 200 flight delays as several trains were cancelled or ran hours late.
- Air quality stayed in the very poor range with Delhi’s AQI around 349–356 and several stations in the severe band, including Nehru Nagar at 423, with forecasts indicating persistent very poor levels through next week.
- Officials issued a yellow alert for cold-wave conditions in Delhi and a red/nowcast warning for very dense fog in morning hours, with fog expected to persist in parts of northwest India through January 16–19.
- Neighbouring states reported near-freezing readings, with Hisar at 0.5°C and recent sub‑1°C lows in Gurugram, while authorities in Jammu reported affected flight operations and trains running 3–4 hours late.
- Daytime highs hovered near normal around 20°C, and IMD expects minima to rise to 6–8°C on Friday and 8–10°C by Sunday, with successive western disturbances likely to bring hill snowfall and a chance of plains rain around January 22–23.