Fog blankets city, flight services affected

“The presence of the moisture in the air led to its condensation and led to the formation of light fog in several parts of Tamil Nadu. However, it cannot be defined exactly as advection fog. It might likely occur for the next few days if the moisture is contained in the air,” said Met director S Balachandran.

This kind of fog usually forms when warm, moist air passes over a cool surface. Weather blogger Pradeep John said that the fog is likely to continue in coastal areas and other interior parts for the next two or three days.

“The fog disappears as the ground surface heats up after the sun rises. This type of fog usually forms when warm, moist air passes over a cool surface. When this happens, the cold air just above the surface cools the warm air above it until it can no longer hold its moisture. This forces the warm air to condense, forming tiny particles of water which forms the fog that we witnessed. The fog will often rapidly cover the coast like a blanket,” he stated.

Weather bloggers said that once the land temperature gets warm, the fog can quickly dissipate as the parcel of air warms. However, if the land temperature is cooler, the fog can linger for a longer time.

Meanwhile, the flights which were scheduled to land in Chennai could not land and they were diverted to Bangalore and Coimbatore.

The heavy fog started descending from 6.30 am and lasted for two hours causing almost zero visibility. It affected nearly 50 flight services. Sources said that flights that were scheduled to land in Chennai from Thiruvananthapuram, Sharjah, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Bangalore, Abu Dhabi, Delhi, and Pune were affected. A total of 11 flights were diverted to Bangalore and Coimbatore.

Nearly 10 flights that arrived from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, and Kolkata were made to wait in the air till the weather got cleared. As many as 28 flights which were about to depart to Tuticorin, Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, Port Blair, London, Muscat, Colombo, and Dubai were delayed up to two hours.