Lucknow’s wait for winter chill gets longer
“Western disturbances generally trigger winter conditions in north India, but the present one is not strong enough to carry cold air,” explained Mohammad Danish, a scientist with the meteorological department. The system allows sunlight to stream through unimpeded, keeping days warm despite the calendar marching toward the year’s end. “Overall, the weather will stay dry and not particularly chilly. However, foggy mornings will persist, especially in the early hours.”
The onset of colder winter conditions in the state capital is likely to be delayed by at least another week, even as foggy mornings continue to affect visibility, meteorologists said on Monday.
“Western disturbances generally trigger winter conditions in north India, but the present one is not strong enough to carry cold air,” explained Mohammad Danish, a scientist with the meteorological department. The system allows sunlight to stream through unimpeded, keeping days warm despite the calendar marching toward the year’s end. “Overall, the weather will stay dry and not particularly chilly. However, foggy mornings will persist, especially in the early hours.”
The state capital recorded a minimum temperature of 11 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 24.6 degrees Celsius on Monday, both above typical December levels. While the met department has issued yellow alerts for dense fog across eastern and western Uttar Pradesh, the bone-chilling cold remains absent.
Meanwhile, the mild winds have delivered an unexpected dividend: cleaner air. Lucknow’s Air Quality Index (AQI) improved to 163 on Monday, climbing into the ‘moderate’ category after languishing in ‘poor’ territory for four straight days between December 11 and 14. The same gentle winds that have kept winter away have swept pollutants from the city’s air, experts said.
But the improvement tells only part of the story. Of the six air quality stations, Talkatora and Lalbagh stations continued to choke with ‘poor’ air quality, recording AQI readings of 239 and 216.
Meteorologists warn that without sustained winds or rainfall, the relief may prove fleeting. And the mild conditions will persist through the week, with temperatures expected to dip by just one or two degrees, still above normal for mid-December.
