The entire North India from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal to Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi is in the grip of severe cold and dense fog. Road, rail and air transport systems broke down. More than 80 trains are running late by 4 to 13 hours, while 271 flights have also been affected. About one and a half dozen flights had to be canceled and one flight had to be diverted. There were delays in 41 flights involving international departures and about 150 flights involving domestic departures.

There is a possibility of increase in the severity of winter in Delhi from today. The Meteorological Department has indicated a drop in the minimum temperature. Along with the fall in mercury, cold winds coming from the mountains can cause shivering in Delhi also. According to the regional meteorological department, the minimum temperature on Friday is expected to be 7 degrees and the maximum temperature will be 21 degrees Celsius.

The Meteorological Department has issued an alert of extremely dense fog at isolated places in Punjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi for the next two days. Light to moderate rain may also occur in these areas from December 30 to January 2. The minimum temperature in most states except the hilly areas will be between 8-12 degrees Celsius. Dense fog may persist in North and Central India till the morning of 30 December. On Thursday morning, visibility was zero in Agra and Bathinda, while visibility was 25 meters in Bareilly, Lucknow, Barabanki, Varanasi, Patiala, Amritsar, Ambala and Ayanagar of Delhi.

Due to fog, train and plane operations in Delhi were affected and passengers were forced to wait for hours on platforms and airports in the cold. A large number of passengers remained stranded at the airport due to change in flight timings and diversion of many flights.

In view of the severe cold and fog, the Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad district administration has ordered all government and private schools up to class 12 to remain closed on December 29-30. There will be winter vacation in schools from January 1 to 15.

Along with snowfall and severe fog, from mountain to plain states are in the grip of severe cold wave. The mercury has reached below zero at many places in Kashmir. Water sources have frozen. Chilliness has increased in Haryana and Punjab. Due to dense fog on Thursday morning, visibility was reduced to zero at many places. This affected everything from air traffic to train operations.

Dense fog engulfed Jammu from 12 o'clock on Wednesday night, which remained till the next morning. After this it remained cloudy throughout the day. Life was affected due to cold. Vistara flight (UK611) from Srinagar to Jammu could not land in Jammu due to bad weather, it was sent back to Srinagar. With this, two flights to Srinagar, three to Delhi and one to Ahmedabad departed towards their destination with a delay of one to two hours.

Due to Chille Kalan, the mercury is below minus almost everywhere in Kashmir. The minimum temperature was recorded below minus 3 degrees Celsius at many places. The coldest was in Pahalgam, where the minimum temperature was recorded at minus 5.4 degrees Celsius. Despite the cold, a large number of devotees are reaching the court of Maa Vaishno. However, the speed of trains has been affected by dense fog. On Thursday, 17 trains coming to Jammu arrived late by two to 13 hours from the scheduled time. These included Shri Shakti, Hemkunt Express, Pooja Express, Vande Bharat, Amarnath Express and Humsafar.

There are chances of rain and snowfall in eight central and high hill districts of Himachal Pradesh on December 30 and 31. The Meteorological Department has expressed the possibility of change in the weather due to the activity of western disturbance. According to the forecast, the weather will remain clear in the plain districts of Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Kangra for the next one week. From January 1, the weather will remain clear in the central and high hill districts of Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti.