Flights resume at Erbil airport after dense fog lifts

ERBIL — Erbil International Airport resumed flight operations Friday morning after all flights were suspended overnight due to dense fog that covered the city, airport officials said.

Ahmed Hoshyar, director of Erbil International Airport, told 964media that “after all flights at our airport were suspended from 9:30 p.m. last night due to weather conditions and the presence of dense fog, air traffic resumed this morning.”

The suspension came as Iraq’s Meteorological Organization forecast fog, rain and lower temperatures across several parts of the country. In its daily bulletin for Friday, Jan. 30, the organization said weather conditions in the central and northern regions would be “partly to mostly cloudy,” with chances of rain in many northern areas, particularly western sections, and fog during nighttime and early morning hours.

The forecast said dense fog was expected in parts of the north and central regions during the morning, with visibility dropping to less than 1 kilometer in some areas before gradually improving later in the day. Light rain is also expected in parts of the central region, while the northern mountainous areas may see “light snowfall accumulations.”

Temperatures are forecast to see “a slight decrease” in the central and northern regions compared with the previous day, with cold daytime conditions and “very cold” weather at night and during early morning hours. Winds are expected to be light and variable, with speeds between 5 and 10 kilometers per hour, increasing at times to moderate levels in some areas.

The Meteorological Organization said fog and low visibility conditions may continue intermittently over the coming days, alongside periods of cloud cover and scattered rainfall across different parts of the country.