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Fresh western disturbance may bring more snow, rainfall: IMD
New Delhi: A fresh western disturbance is likely to cause severe weather conditions such as thunderstorms, rainfall and snowfall in many parts of northern India
New Delhi: A fresh western disturbance is likely to cause severe weather conditions such as thunderstorms, rainfall and snowfall in many parts of northern India between Thursday and Saturday, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday. There is also forecast for lightning and hailstorm in parts of northern plains.
IMD scientists said the western disturbance is an “active” one, which will bring widespread snowfall in the hills and rains in plains and is likely to reduce maximum temperature marginally for the next two to three days. A western disturbance is said to be active when it brings widespread snowfall to hills and rainfall to plains.
A fresh western disturbance is seen as a cyclonic circulation over Iran and neighbourhood at mid-tropospheric levels. This is likely to form an induced cyclonic circulation over south-western Rajasthan and adjoining Pakistan at lower tropospheric levels by Wednesday. High moisture feeding from the Arabian Sea is also likely over northwestern parts of the country at lower and mid-tropospheric levels on Thursday and Friday,” IMD’s bulletin said.
Widespread rainfall or snowfall is most likely over Western Himalayan regions such as Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh (UP). Thunderstorm accompanied by lightning, hail and gusty winds are likely to lash Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, UP, northern Rajasthan and a few places over Punjab and Haryana.
Due to the confluence of westerly winds and moist, low-level easterly winds from the Arabian Sea over east and central India, rainfall is also forecast over Odisha, West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and the northeastern states between Wednesday and Friday.
“The impact of the western disturbance will be felt across both northern and eastern parts of the country,” said M Mohapatra, director-general of IMD.
“Besides western disturbance, there is also an induced cyclonic circulation over western Rajasthan and moisture incursion from the Arabian Sea. Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh will experience snowfall and Punjab will receive rainfall from Wednesday evening. On Thursday and Friday, the rest of north India, including Delhi-NCR and western UP, will experience moderate rainfall. Some places will receive hail storms as well. This western disturbance is more intense than the one which crossed last Saturday. The temperature is also likely to fall for a few days,” said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre. Another western disturbance may affect the region around March 11 and 12, but its too early to forecast, he added.
Northwestern parts of the country were affected by nine western disturbances in February and 10 in January.
Usually, two to three monthly western disturbances occur during January and February every year.
DS Pai, senior scientist at IMD Pune, had explained the reasons behind the abnormal spike in western disturbances, whose impact is being felt in the northwestern parts of the country. “The extra-tropical flow regime has come down towards the south. This may be because of natural variability. The other reason is that westerly winds are weaker than normal leading to development of more troughs over north-western parts of the country.”
