Fog lifts in Delhi, clear weather sets in

A pleasant clear wintry sun greeted the national capital Sunday, after days of dark damp mornings and heavy fog that caused havoc with air, rail and road traffic.

With the fog cover lifting, the general visibility was recorded at 100 meters in the early hours of Sunday. By 9 a.m. it had cleared further and visibility was at around 300 meters.

Despite the fog lifting, the biting cold persisted due to the freezing winds blowing from the east, also termed 'easterlies'.

Flights were moving as per schedule and the runway visibility at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport was reported to be fine.

"There are no problems in flight operations, and the runway visibility was recorded at more than 1,400 meters," Anirudh Chatterjee, an IGI airport official, told IANS.

However, some private airlines cancelled flights in a few sectors.

"The few flights reported to have been cancelled are of private airlines. They may have rescheduled or cancelled flights for their own reasons as from the airport's side everything is okay," the airport official said.

The Sunday traffic on the arterial Ring Road and Outer Ring Road was moving comfortably, a Delhi traffic police official said.

In the past few days, the capital had witnessed several accidents, including some fatal ones, due to the dense fog cover.

There were reports that as many as 20 trains were running behind schedule. This was attributed to the fog blanket in towns across northern India.

According to a met official, the cold easterlies will continue to make the national capital shiver. "These winds are of a speed of 10 km an hour. They will continue to blow in the coming days," a met official said.

The minimum temperature Sunday was 8.1 degree Celsius, a degree above normal. The maximum temperature recorded Saturday was 15 degrees Celsius. Relative humidity was at a high

u00a0