Sans fog, Delhi readies for a clear New Years

New Delhi: It's a perfect adieu to 2008. No thick fog to delay your flight and spoil your New Year Eve's plans, just clear skies and the familiar chill of a Delhi winter that makes the prospect of an open air party with a bonfire seem exciting.

After a spate of flight delays over the last few days at the Capital's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport due to the thick fog cover reducing the runway visibility range, on Wednesday morning - the last day of the year - dawned cold and clear.

Although there were some reports of flight delays, an airport official said, "There was hardly any fog. Therefore, there has been no disruption of flight schedules."

And although the morning seemed nippier, almost piercing, meteorological officials said the minimum temperature recorded at 8 am was well above normal.

"The minimum temperature recorded this morning was 8.2 degree Celsius, which is a degree above normal. Why we are feeling more cold today is because of the absence of the fog cover and the wind which could be there because of the snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir," an official at the India Meteorological department (IMD) said.

The maximum temperature, the official added, will hover around 21 degree Celsius which will be a degree below normal.

Last year, the minimum temperature on New Year's Eve was lower than this year's at five degrees Celsius.

"It will be clear skies this New Year's Eve. It could be misty, but not that foggy," the official added.

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