Two cold fronts collided over northern Mexico this Friday, bringing freezing temperatures to higher-altitude regions and heavy fog across the center of the country.
According to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), cold front 15 is still lingering over northwest Mexico, while cold front 16 starts moving in across the northern border with the United States.
These two fronts will interact with the polar and subtropical jet streams to cause wind gusts of up to 80 kilometers per hour in the Baja California peninsula, Sonora, Chihuahua and Coahuila.
Temperatures could drop as low as -10 degrees Celsius in the mountains of Chihuahua and Durango, and as low as -5 degrees Celsius in the mountains of Baja California, Sonora, Zacatecas, México State, Puebla and Veracruz.
Near-freezing temperatures are also predicted in higher-altitude regions of Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Mexico City and Oaxaca.
Meanwhile, low pressure channels and the entry of moisture from the oceans will bring light rain and scattered showers to Mexico’s central and southern states.
The interaction of these weather systems is bringing heavy fog to the central region, causing havoc for air transport. Airlines suspended flights at Mexico City, Guadalajara, Querétaro and Toluca airports early on Friday morning, waiting for visibility to improve.
“Due to a fog bank at the AICM and zero visibility, take-offs and landings are suspended,” Mexico City International Airport (AICM) announced on social media at 7 a.m. “For your safety, we hope that the weather conditions will improve so that we can resume operations.”
The Infrastructure, Communications and Transport Ministry (SICT) said that flights already on route to central Mexico were being diverted to the airports of Querétaro, León, Acapulco and Toluca. Shortly afterwards, however, Querétaro and Toluca also announced a suspension of some operations.
Although the AICM resumed operations by 8.30 a.m. and Guadalajara by 10.30 a.m., Aeromexico, Viva Aerobus and Volaris all alerted customers that their flights from Mexico’s central airports had been affected, and to stay alert to updates via their websites.
With reports from El Financiero
