Several areas across the northern states, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab experienced moderate to dense fog on Sunday morning, the India Meteorological Department said.

The foggy conditions resulting in reduced visibility continued to affect rail, road and air traffic during the early hours. According to IMD forecast, the fog over most parts of North-West, Central and East India is likely to continue for a few days.

The weatherman further said that dense fog will prevail over many parts of Punjab till Monday, and over western Uttar Pradesh till Thursday. For Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and East Uttar Pradesh, the weatherman predicted very dense fog till tomorrow.

As for Uttarakhand, the dense fog is likely to continue till Thursday, while in north Madhya Pradesh, north Rajasthan, and Jharkhand it may prevail till Monday, IMD said. The dense fog is also likely to prevail in Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura till Tuesday.

Delhi, during the morning hours, witnessed a blanket of fog while the city’s minimum temperature settled at 11.7 degrees Celsius, said the Met official.

According to the Northern Railways, around 23 trains were delayed due to the foggy weather conditions. They included Purushottam Express, Chennai-New Delhi GT Express, Hyderabad-New Delhi, Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani and Bhopal-Nizamuddin Express.

The bone-chilling cold alone was not the cause of the misery of the residents of the national capital. Toxic air continued to batter the people as the average Air Quality Index on Sunday measured at 382, falling in the ‘very poor’ quality, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said.

The air quality is likely to remain under the Very Poor category from January 1- 3, said the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), adding that weather conditions are extremely unfavourable for effective dispersion of pollutants.

The air monitoring agency has cautioned the residents against air quality which might further deteriorate if the people continued to burn crackers during celebrations to mark the New Year.

“The outlook for subsequent six days: The air quality is likely to remain in the Very Poor category, ” the IITM said.