Fog on R-Day most intense, January trend to break 50-year record

New Delhi, Jan 26 (IANS) The dense white fog which blinded the Republic Day parade from many peoples' view Tuesday and crippled flight and rail schedules all through the month of January, will break a 50-year record, officials said.

The thick fog Tuesday was recorded to be the most intense this season.	 	
"The fog this month is going to break a record actually! So far this month, we have seen 147 hours of CAT III dense fog (parameter based on the low-visibility landing equipment). There are still a few days in January remaining and the trend shows we will not have much change in fog conditions.	 	
"So we feel that this year, the 2003 record of 147 hours which had then broken a 50-year record will easily be broken," Rajendra Jenamani, director of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport met office, told IANS.	 	
Thanks to the fog, visibility Tuesday was consistently below 75 metres. "From 5.30 a.m. to 11 a.m., the IGI airport recorded the runway visibility below 75 metres. In common parlance that is zero visibility. There were hardly any flight operations... we never see dense fog like this consistently even though duration was less," he explained.	 	
On an average, Jenamani said the month of January saw 45.5 hours of dense fog. "This years is three times of that!"	 	
The per day average is 1.5 hours, which on most days this month has been 5 to 15 hours of fog.	 	
"The dates with most intense fog this time were Jan 1-2, 13-14, 21-22," Jenamani said. 	 	
This month there were only five days when Delhi did not have dense fog.	 	
"The days when we did not have dense fog were Jan 9-13. Then there was less fog on Jan 24. But the remaining 21 days there has been dense fog in Delhi," he said.	 	
In the remaining days of January, the met official said respite from the fog is unlikely. 	 	
Winds from west carrying moisture known as the western disturbances were approaching the national capital region.	 	
"Jan 28-29 may see some respite but after that when western disturbances will reach it may bring some rain. In which case, rain with low temperature may cause fog to persist till first week of February," Jenamani informed.