'Peninsular India recorded warmest January in over 100 years': IMD report

The region also recorded unusually high rainfall in January - 45.9mm against normal of 8.9mm.

Peninsular India recorded the warmest January in 121 years with a mean temperature of 22.33 degrees Celsius followed by 22.14 degrees Celsius recorded in January 1919 and 21.93 in January 2020.

A mirage seen along Rajpath, as the temperature soared in New Delhi on May 24. The red category alert was issued for severe heatwave conditions on May 25 and 26. (Amal KS / HT Photo)

Peninsular India also recorded unusually high rainfall in January - 45.9mm against normal of 8.9mm (+433 per cent above normal), highest since 1951 according to a report released by India Meteorological Department on weather patterns in January.

There was a prolonged wet spell of around 17 days over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal from January 1 to 17 when there was widespread rain. For weeks, between December 31-January 6, January 7 to 13 and January 14 to 20, rainfall departure over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal was +807 per cent, +1036 per cent and +727 per cent respectively.

A prolonged wet spell with cloudy weather lasting about five days was recorded over northwest India too during January 2 to 6, covering a large area of both plains and the western Himalayan region.

The actual observed average maximum, average minimum and average temperature for the country was 25.8 degrees Celsius, 14.8 degrees Celsius and 19.9 degrees Celsius against normal of 25.6 degrees Celsius, 13.7 degrees Celsius and 19.6 degrees Celsius respectively. It shows that respective temperatures were near normal except the minimum temperature which was higher than normal by about 1.0 degrees Celsius in January.

Analysis of long-term data of period ranging between the years 1901-2021 showed that the minimum temperature in January 2021 was the warmest in 62 years after 1958 when it was 14.78 degrees Celsius.

Spatial temperature pattern over India shows average that monthly maximum temperatures in January 2021 were below normal by 2-4 degrees Celsius across Indo-Gangetic plain while pockets over south Punjab, north Haryana and Bihar recorded significantly below normal by 3-4 degrees Celsius.

“We saw very strong easterly activity in Peninsular India this January. Moisture was high and both days and nights were cloudy leading to trapping of heat. The impact of western disturbance over Western Himalaya in the first week couldn’t penetrate the east or central India as much,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist at national weather forecasting centre.