The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of dense to very dense fog and cold day conditions persisting in Uttar Pradesh between December 17 and 20. It has sounded a red alert for some districts and orange and yellow alerts for others.
According to the Meteorological Department, the fog in Uttar Pradesh has increased due to an anticyclone over western India and surrounding areas and the active western jet stream in the upper atmosphere.
According to IMD scientist Dr. A K Singh, the inversion layer at lower levels is causing the cold air to persist, resulting in no significant change in minimum temperatures, while day temperatures have dropped. In many places, the maximum daytime temperature was 5-6 degrees Celsius below normal, while in some areas, a drop of 8-10 degrees was observed. This is why cold day conditions prevail in several districts of the state.
These conditions, it said, are likely to persist for the next 2-3 days. Very low visibility was recorded in many districts of western and eastern Uttar Pradesh. In the last 24 hours, visibility was less than 50 meters in several places, affecting road, rail, and air traffic.
The Meteorological Department said very dense fog and cold day conditions are highly likely in several districts including Deoria, Gorakhpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Siddharthnagar, Gonda, Balrampur, Shravasti, Bahraich, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Barabanki, Bijnor, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Pilibhit, and Shahjahanpur.
The dense fog is likely in Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Mau, Ballia, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Kanpur Nagar, Unnao, Lucknow, Raebareli, Amethi, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Saharanpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, and other districts.
The Meteorological Department has advised the public to avoid unnecessary travel during the morning and night, use fog lights while driving, and protect the elderly and children from the cold. The administration has also been instructed to remain vigilant and take necessary precautionary measures.