Mercury to drop by 4-6°Celsius in northwest India after heavy rains: IMD
Intense rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy shower is also likely over Western Himalayan region during next 48 hours and over plains of northwest India during next 24 hours, IMD said
Minimum temperatures over northwest India, particularly Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, are likely to drop by 4 to 6 degrees Celsius over the next two-three days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted on Saturday, following an intense wet spell over several parts in the region.
Intense rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy shower is also likely over Western Himalayan region during next 48 hours and over plains of northwest India during next 24 hours, IMD said. It further predicted that intense thunderstorm activity will continue over Central India from January 8 to 12 and over Eastern India during January 10 to 13.
“A western disturbance as a cyclonic circulation lies over north Pakistan and neighbourhood with a trough (line of low pressure) aloft. The induced cyclonic circulation is lying over east Rajasthan and neighbourhood at lower tropospheric levels. There is high moisture incursion from Arabian Sea over northwest and adjoining central India, which is likely to continue during next two days. The confluence of winds from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal at lower tropospheric levels is likely over central India during next three-four days,” the IMD said in its evening forecast bulletin on Saturday.
Widespread light to moderate rainfall or snowfall is likely over Western Himalayan region till Sunday and the same will decrease significantly thereafter. “Isolated very heavy rainfall or snowfall is very likely over Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad and Himachal Pradesh on January 8. Isolated heavy rainfall/snowfall is very likely over Himachal Pradesh on January 9 and over Uttarakhand on January 8 and 9,” the bulletin added.
Widespread rainfall is also likely to continue over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Western Uttar Pradesh, IMD said, adding it will decrease from Sunday. “Scattered to fairly widespread rainfall is very likely over East Uttar Pradesh & West Madhya Pradesh on January 8 and 9, over East Madhya Pradesh during January 8 to 12 and over Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh during January 10 to 12 and over Vidarbha during January 9 to 12, over Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal during January 11 to 12,” the weather bureau said in the bulletin.
M Mohapatra, director general, IMD, said Delhi has already recorded moderate rain due to the ongoing wet spell.
“Now gradually rainfall will reduce over western parts of Punjab and Haryana. There was widespread snowfall over Jammu and Kashmir on Friday. Now intense rain is expected over Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. The western disturbance which caused rainfall over northwest India is expected to move eastwards gradually and cause rainfall, thundershowers there,” said Mohapatra.
There were two WDs in close succession that caused an extended wet spell over northwest India, he added. “The impact was higher because of moisture incursion from Arabian Sea. Over Central India we are expecting confluence of winds from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal so there can be widespread and heavy rain over Madhya Pradesh. As the WD moves away, very cold northerly winds blowing from snowclad Himalayas are going to bring down minimum temperatures by around 4 to 6 degrees over northwest India.”
According to the weather agency, slight fall in minimum temperatures is likely over Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan during next 24 hours and rapid fall by 4-6 degrees C during next 2-3 days and no significant change thereafter. “No significant change in minimum temperatures is very likely over Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh during next 2-3 days and fall by 2-4 degree C during subsequent 3 days,” IMD said.
Several parts of the northwest India reported intense wet spell on Saturday. In Jammu and Kashmir, Udhampur IAF recorded 12 cm rainfall/snowfall, Katra (10 cm) and Jammu (8 cm). In Punjab, Kapurthala recorded 9 cm rainfall, Gurdaspur (6 cm) and Jalandhar (5 cm) each. In Central Delhi, Pusa (7 cm), Ayanagar (5 cm) and Palam recorded 5 cm of rainfall, according to IMD.