Delhi-NCR witnessed a dense layer of fog on Wednesday morning, even as the minimum temperature settled three notches above normal at 14.6 degrees Celsius.

The visibility levels dropped to 50 metres at the Palam observatory, near the Indira Gandhi International Airport. "Dense fog observed at isolated places over Haryana, Delhi and west Rajasthan, and shallow to moderate fog over Bihar and Odisha," an IMD official said to PTI.

This comes as air quality in the 'Poor' category (201) in Delhi, as per System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR)-India.

Mahesh Palawat, a senior meteorologist at Skymet Weather, said a cyclonic circulation has developed over Punjab and Haryana under the influence of a western disturbance affecting the western Himalayan region.

"Warm and humid easterly winds and cool northwesterly winds are interacting over the region due to the induced cyclonic circulation. The increase in humidity and condensation are leading to fog formation. Such weather is not common in February," he said.

On Monday, Delhi recorded the third hottest February day in 55 years with the maximum temperature at the Safdarjung observatory soaring to 33.6 degrees Celsius that is around 9 degrees above normal.

In Uttarakhand, the weather changed on Tuesday evening with several districts of the state including Dehradun and Mussoorie receiving medium to heavy rainfall along with hailstorms. Also, the higher peaks of Uttarakhand’s town Joshimath received snowfall leading to temperature hovering around 5 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the IMD alert on heat waves in some parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat will end on Wednesday as the temperature is expected to ease. IMD had issued alert for maharahtra's Raigad and Ratnagiri district and Gujarat’s Kutch, Surendranagar and Rajkot districts.

Also Read:Minimum temperature in Delhi settles at 16.1°C, Ahmedabad records 39°C in February after over 30 years

First Published:Feb 22, 2023 3:37 PM IST