Pune: In a peculiar weather event, isolated areas in Pune witnessed shallow fog during the early hours of Thursday morning, accompanied by haze in some regions. Anupam Kashyapi, the head of the weather forecasting division at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Pune, attributed the shallow fog to high-level clouds and pointed to a minor moisture incursion in and around the city.
“Observing high-level clouds in the morning indicates some degree of moisture incursion. Hence, our forecast for Friday includes mainly clear skies, rather than the usual clear skies. Sus Road and Baner reported shallow fog, while other parts experienced haze, characterized by a mixture of mist and dust particles,” Kashyapi explained.
The meteorologist linked the weather phenomenon to a trough in easterlies stretching from south interior Karnataka to central Chhattisgarh across Telangana and Vidarbha. This trough, he suggested, might be causing minor moisture incursion, resulting in the development of haze and shallow fog in certain areas.
Shallow fog, a common occurrence under specific atmospheric conditions, forms when moist air near the ground comes into contact with a cooler surface or air mass. Typically emerging during late-night or early-morning hours, shallow fog manifests as the ground cools down, causing the air near the surface to cool as well. As the air reaches its dew point, water vapor condenses, giving rise to the formation of fog.
On Thursday, Shivajinagar experienced a near-normal minimum temperature of 11.5°C, while the maximum temperature dropped to 28.5°C, introducing a slight chill to the air. Lohegaon recorded a day temperature of 27.6°C, more than 2° below normal, along with a near-normal minimum temperature of 12.8°C.
