Cold air, dense fog and 'very poor' air quality enveloped Delhi as the winter conditions tightened their grip on the national capital since Friday morning. The minimum temperature was recorded at 11°C, while visibility dropped to 1,700 metres at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), disrupting flight operations in the early morning.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)has issued forecasts for dense to very dense fog conditions over the next five to seven days. Due to this, weather warnings and travel advisories were issued.
IMD issues orange alert for cold day
On 2 January, the IMD issued an orange alert for "cold day" conditions in Delhi, followed by a yellow alert the next day. Cold wave conditions at isolated places in Delhi are most likely to prevail from 2 to 5 January, said the latest weather bulletin.
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IMD said, "Cold wave conditions very likely in isolated pockets of Himachal Pradesh during 1st - 4th; Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh & Delhi during 2nd -5th; Rajasthan during 4th - 7th January 2026. "The department has also forecast a partly cloudy sky with foggy conditions during morning hours. For Friday, the maximum temperature in Delhi is likely to oscillate between 16°C and 18°C, and the minimum temperature between 8°C and 10°C. "The minimum temperatures will be above normal (2.1 to 4.1°C) and the maximum temperatures will be below normal (-1.3 to -3.3°C) over Delhi," the IMD said.
Reportedly, a press release dated 1 January read, "Dense to Very dense fog conditions very likely to continue during night/morning hours at many/some places over Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh & Delhi till 06th; over Odisha till 5th; over Bihar and East Uttar Pradesh till 2nd January at isolated pockets over Rajasthan till 3rd January 2026."
Flights impacted due to fog
Airlines issued advisories due to dense fog that affected visibility. IndiGo tweeted, "Early-morning fog is expected to affect visibility across #Delhi. A few flights scheduled for tomorrow have been cancelled in advance to help reduce waiting time at the airport."
Air India warned of possible disruptions: "Due to predicted dense fog and reduced visibility in Delhi and parts of Northern India tomorrow morning, flight schedules may be impacted, causing ripple effects across the network."
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Delhi AQI remains very poor
The current status of the air quality levels of Delhi is that the air quality continues to remain in the "very poor" category, albeit with a slight drop. As per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the overall AQI stands at 321 at 6:05 am, showing improvement from a reading of 380 on the first day of the New Year. Among the stations, NSIT Dwarka recorded the highest reading of 419, falling under the "severe" category. A total of eight stations had "poor" air quality standards, while the remaining 28 had "very poor" levels.
