Rise in temp, decrease in fog likely from Jan 20 in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh will see rising temperatures and reduced fog over 48 hours, with rain expected from January 22, improving cold conditions.

Under the influence of successive western disturbances, a gradual increase in temperature is expected over the next 48 hours in Uttar Pradesh, along with decrease in fog, followed by a possibility of rain from January 22, a weatherman said.

Many parts of the state woke up to dense to very dense fog that had gripped UP on January 18. (HT file)

“The decline in night temperatures over the past few days has stopped and despite a slight increase, a partial cold wave condition persisted on Saturday night in the central parts of the state, including Hardoi, Amethi, Ayodhya, and Barabanki,” said Atul Kumar Singh, a senior scientist at Lucknow Met office.

“However, due to the change in wind direction caused by the western disturbance, a gradual increase of 2 to 4°C in temperature is expected across the state over the next 24-48 hours. This will provide relief from the ongoing cold wave at night and the dense to very dense fog prevailing across the state since Saturday morning is expected to gradually decrease and dissipate after January 20,” he added.

Subsequently, under the influence of an upcoming active western disturbance, a spell of rain is expected to begin in western UP from January 22 and extend to eastern UP in the following days, leading to a significant improvement in the prevailing cold conditions across the state.

Many parts of the state woke up to dense to very dense fog that had gripped the state on Sunday. Several districts like Moradabad, Aligarh, Bareilly, Gorakhpur (IAF), Barabanki, Kanpur (IAF) and Azamgarh reported zero visibility in the morning hours and at Lucknow airport the visibility was barely 50 metres.

As forecast, there was an increase in spatial coverage and intensity of fog during morning hours over the state. Dense fog has spread over many places of the state except extreme north west and south west UP.

“As per the available data, Ghaziabad, Bareilly and Kanpur reported very dense fog with zero visibility whereas Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj reported dense fog with visibility between 50-100 meters at 5 am,” the weatherman said.

Hardoi was coldest in the state at 3.5 degrees C, which was 5.3 degrees below the normal, Fursatganj at 3.7 degrees, 4.7 degrees below normal, Barabanki, Ayodhya and Meerut were 4 degrees C.

The problem people are facing is that the difference between day and night temperatures is around 4 to 5 times. Here in Lucknow, the difference between day and night temperatures was four times. Day and night temperatures in the district were 23.4 and 6.4 degrees Celsius.

The forecast for Lucknow is mainly clear, becoming partly cloudy later. The maximum and minimum temperature will be around 24 and 9 degrees respectively. Warning of dense fog during late night/morning hours.