Bhubaneswar, Cuttack wake up to dense fog; temperature to rise by 2-4 degrees across Odisha

Bhubaneswar and its adjoining areas woke up to dense fog with visibility dropping to 30 meters amid rising minimum temperatures on Saturday morning. The Regional Center of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) classified this weather condition as ‘extremely dense fog’.

As per reports, fog had started accumulating at various parts of the state capital on Friday night itself with visibility dropping to 1,000 meters by 9:30 pm and further dropping to 970 meters or less by 11 pm in Bhubaneswar.

Similar conditions also gripped neighbouring Cuttack City with most of its areas under extremely dense fog. As such, the residents of the twin city faced hurdles during the morning commute as major stretches including the NH-16 were under a fog blanket. As per the IMD, the foggy weather is likely to continue until 26th January.

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The weather department also issued a yellow alert for dense fog in several districts, including Angul, Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj, Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Deogarh, Sundargarh, and Koraput.

Meanwhile, mercury levels have risen across the state, from the coastal regions to the interiors. As per the IMD forecast, the next five days are expected to remain mostly dry but temperatures are predicted to rise by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius along with the persistence of dense fog layers for the next two days.

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The influence of a low-pressure belt is reportedly causing dense fog in the northern, coastal and adjoining regions of the state. Incidentally, the sudden rise in temperature owing to the dense fog conditions has already started to pinch with the Koraput district marking its warmest January in 52 years.