Moderate to dense fog blankets North India, visibility reduced: IMD

New Delhi [India], January 3 : As cold wave conditions prevailed in North India, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday that moderate to dense fog cover was observed over parts of the region, including Punjab, Haryana, and central parts of Uttar Pradesh.
According to the IMD, due to the fog cover late Tuesday evening, visibility in the areas was reduced, with Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly recording the lowest at 25.
'Very dense' fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 meters, 51 and 200 meters is 'dense', 201 and 500 meters 'moderate', and 501 and 1,000 meters 'shallow.'
Taking to the social media platform X, the IMD said that at 11:30 pm on Tuesday, very dense fog enveloped isolated pockets of West Uttar Pradesh, and dense fog was over isolated pockets of East Uttar Pradesh and East Rajasthan.

"Moderate to dense fog cover visible over Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan, West Madhya Pradesh adjoining East Rajasthan, Central parts of Uttar Pradesh south Assam & Tripura," IMD wrote in a series of posts on X.
"Fog Observed at 2330 hours IST of 02nd Jan: Very dense fog in isolated pockets of West UP; Dense fog in isol. pockets of East UP & East Rajasthan; Moderate fog in isol. pockets of Jammu, Haryana & MP & Shallow fog in isol, pockets of Punjab, Delhi, West Rajasthan & Bihar," IMD added.
As per IMD, the visibility recorded in West Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly was the lowest at 25, followed by Varanasi (50). While Ajmer in Rajasthan recorded visibility of 50, Kota and Jaipur each recorded visibility of 500.
Earlier on Monday, the Director General of Meteorology, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, told ANI that above-normal maximum temperatures are likely over most parts of peninsular and Northeast India. He also mentioned that during the upcoming winter season (January to March 2024), the rainfall over North India is most likely to be normal.
"Seasonal rainfall over the country as a whole during January to March is most likely to be above normal. Normal to above-normal seasonal rainfall is likely over most parts of the country except parts from extreme south peninsular India, extreme northwest, and northeast India, where below-normal rainfall is likely," he said.
During January 2024, monthly minimum temperatures are most likely to be above normal in many parts of the country, except in some parts of North India, where normal to below-normal minimum temperatures are likely, he added.
According to the IMD, the anomaly forecast for the number of cold wave days is expected to be below normal over most parts of Central India during the month of January 2024.