Mercury drops to 10.2 Degree C, fog disrupts flights

New Delhi, Feb 20 (UNI) Cold Northwesterly winds today led to a drop in mercury in Delhi even as fog led to disruption of flight schedules in the capital for the second time in the last one week.

Though it was another sunny day in the Capital, cold Northwesterlies led to a drop in minimum temperature today to 10.2 degree Celsius, one degree below normal.

The maximum also dropped slightly to 25 degree C.

Meanwhile, fog led to disruption of flight schedules at the International airport for the second time over the last one week.

A total of five flights, including two international, had to be diverted due to fog.

At about 0500 hours, fog led to a sharp drop in visibility levels to below 200 m of Runway visual Range (RVR).

''Low visibility procedures had to be put in force at 0530 hours after the RVR dropped to 150 m,''a spokesperson of the Airports Authority of India said.

However, the LVP was terminated at 0900 hours, when the RVR improved to 1500 m.

Weathermen attribute the sudden chill in the air to influence of an approaching western disturbance as an upper air system.

The Western disturbance could result in scattered rain or snow over the western Himalayan region during next 48 hours, the weather office said.

So while the minimum temperature could rise slightly tomorrow and the day after, they would witness a drop from February 23 onwards.

The met office has forecast a mainly clear sky in Delhi during the next 24 hours with likelihood of mist in the morning hours.

After maintaining the rising trend for whole of last week, the mercury on Saturday dipped to 9.1 degrees Celsius, the lowest this month.

UNI