{"id":39022,"date":"2024-01-11T04:49:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T23:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=39022"},"modified":"2025-04-24T00:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T19:19:35","slug":"fog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/fog\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Did North India Fog So Heavily Last Week?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Background<\/li>\n<li>What is Fog?<\/li>\n<li>Why is North India Prone to Fogging?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Background<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A thick blanket of fog descended on several states of northern India in the last days of 2023 and first of 2024, creating challenging conditions for residents and travelers alike.<\/li>\n<li>Some places in the country\u2019s north reported low temperatures and dense fog for the last week of December.<\/li>\n<li>According to weather reports in late December 2023, minimum temperatures in Punjab, Haryana, and the northern reaches of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh hovered around 6-9 degrees C.<\/li>\n<li>In New Delhi, south Rajasthan, and north Madhya Pradesh, some places recorded minimum temperatures in the range of 10-12 degrees C, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).<\/li>\n<li>In the same time, most of North India also experienced a dense fog that reduced visibility in many areas to as little as 50 metres for several days.<\/li>\n<li>Haryana, including Chandigarh, plus isolated pockets of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh reported fog with visibility reduced to under 200 metres.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is Fog?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2024\/1\/11\/13\/37\/34\/659fa1c60c41e105c4aee1e7_OI.PNG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>Fog is a common weather phenomenon.<\/li>\n<li>It is a collection of small droplets of water produced when evaporated water has cooled down and condensed.<\/li>\n<li>In simple terms, it is nothing but a thick cloud, but very close to the earth\u2019s surface.\n<ul>\n<li>For a thick fog to form, temperatures should be lower and abundant moisture should be available near the surface.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Formation\n<ul>\n<li><u>Fog materialises whenever there is a temperature disparity between the ground and the air<\/u>.\n<ul>\n<li>This happens frequently during Indian winters: the fog is created when the temperature drops at night and in the early morning, condenses on aerosols present in the atmosphere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>High humidity, combined with an ample presence of water vapor or moisture, encourages foggy conditions.<\/li>\n<li>The process by which it cools plays a pivotal role in the formation of fog.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Mechanism\n<ul>\n<li>One primary mechanism contributing to fog formation is called Infrared Cooling.\n<ul>\n<li>It typically occurs when the weather is transitioning from summer to winter.<\/li>\n<li>In the summer, the ground absorbs radiation from the Sun, becomes warmer, and moistens the air passing over it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>When cooler weather kicks in, this mass of warm, moist air comes in contact with processes that cool it.<\/li>\n<li>The \u2018collision\u2019 prompts the water vapor in the air to condense rapidly, giving rise to fog.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Other types\n<ul>\n<li>Another type of fog, known as radiation fog, is prevalent and occurs when an unseasonably warm day with high humidity is followed by rapidly dropping temperatures.<\/li>\n<li>The specific type of fog, its duration, and its effects are contingent on various environmental conditions.<\/li>\n<li>For example, there exists a unique type of fog that encourages snow to melt faster.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why is North India Prone to Fogging?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The entire Indo-Gangetic plains are prone to formation of fog during winter season, as all the conditions \u2014 low temperatures, low wind speed, moisture availability and plenty of aerosols \u2014 are present in this region.<\/li>\n<li>Winds called the Western Disturbances, originating in the Mediterranean, bring in moisture to Northern India.\n<ul>\n<li>Sometimes, the Arabian Sea also elevates the moisture content in the northern region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Moreover, the Himalayas in the north act as a barrier, preventing the eastward movement of the fog over the plains, leading to its concentration over the Indo-Gangetic region.<\/li>\n<li>In Delhi\u2019s case, air pollutants such as particulate matter add to the load, creating smog (smoke fog).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/north-india-dense-fog-explained\/article67704505.ece#:~:text=down%20and%20condensed.-,High%20humidity%2C%20combined%20with%20an%20ample%20presence%20of%20water%20vapour,rapidly%2C%20giving%20rise%20to%20fog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Why did North India fog so heavily last week? | Explained<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/india-today-insight\/story\/why-blinding-fog-is-a-worry-in-delhi-north-india-every-winter-2481087-2023-12-27\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>India Today<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smog is nothing but a thick cloud, but very close to the earth\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}