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In Dec-end, winter away from Lucknow on a vacation?
Lucknow experiences an unusually warm December, with temperatures 7.8°C above normal, attributed to overcast skies and insufficient rainfall.
Despite December drawing to a close, the usual winter chill remains elusive in the state capital. The city is also devoid of foggy mornings and nights so far. Weathermen say it is due to overcast conditions and rain.
According to experts, warm December could be attributed to many factors, including less rainfall in October and November, which usually cools the region. The state capital has witnessed little drizzle in December which failed to bring down the temperature.
“Due to rainfall and clouds, the temperature has risen since yesterday (Friday). But it will fall down after rainfall is over in the next one or two days,” said Manish R Ranalkar, director, meteorological department, Lucknow.
“This is a common phenomenon. Whenever there is rainfall and cloudy sky, radiation from the earth gets trapped leading to rise in temperature,” Ranalkar added. “When clouds move from Uttar Pradesh, temperature will again fall down,” he said.
“This year, winter is not that oppressive as compared to last year. But only on the basis of one year, we cannot say that winter is abnormal. But December in Lucknow has been abnormal,” Ranalkar said. As per experts, lack of western disturbances, which can cause cloudiness and low minimum temperatures, could also be the reason for the missing winter chill.
No snowfall in the Himalayas could also be the reason for the warm winter in most parts of the country this year, they added. Meanwhile, on Saturday, the city recorded a minimum temperature of 15.2 degrees Celsius, which was around 7.8 degrees above normal.
The maximum temperature registered during the day here was 24.1 degrees Celsius, which was around three degrees above normal. There was also an early morning drizzle in the state capital. According to the Met department, in the last 24 hours, light to moderate rainfall took place in western Uttar Pradesh and very light rainfall occurred in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Shallow to moderate fog was recorded at isolated places in both the meteorological divisions of Uttar Pradesh and dense fog prevailed at one or two places in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Met department said. During the last 24 hours, night temperatures increased significantly in Bareilly Ayodhya and Lucknow divisions. However, there was no significant change in the remaining divisions.
Night temperatures were markedly above normal (+5.0°C) in Varanasi, Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly, Agra, Meerut and Jhansi divisions. It was also above normal (+3.1°C to +5.0°C) in Moradabad division and above normal (+1.6°C to +3.0°C) in Gorakhpur division. The lowest minimum temperature of 9.8°C in the state was recorded at Najibabad.
