E-Paper
Snow, rain may return to north India; Delhi minimum 7.6°C
Western Himalayan region and nearby plains to see rain and snow early next week due to new western disturbance, leading to colder temperatures.
Spells of rain and snow are likely to return to the Western Himalayan region and the plains nearby early next week, with some showers, lightning and overcast conditions extending to over central India and parts of the northwest plains, including the national capital, weather experts said on Friday.
The India Meteorological Department predicted these due to a new western disturbance (WD) system forecast to arrive in these parts of the country.
The last such phenomenon, which is marked by moisture-heavy winds that originate in the Mediterranean and sweep in from the West before hitting the Himalayan ranges, where it precipitates into snow and rain, indirectly led to colder conditions in the plains to return on Friday, officials said, explaining the temperatures first rise when WDs arrive, but drop after they recede since the directions of wind changes, bringing in the cold from the mountains where the WDs leave a thicker or fresh snow cover.
“When the previous WD was approaching on February 19, temperatures had gone up due to variable winds. Now there are northwesterly winds blowing over the plains and temperatures have gone back to near normal. The forthcoming WD is likely to bring rain and snow to higher reaches and very light rain to plains mostly Punjab,” said Naresh Kumar, senior scientist at IMD.
Northwesterly winds are colder owing to the snow-clad mountains through which they arrive.
“Temperatures will rise again because of the WD expected to approach on February 26 and 27. Once it moves away, we can expect a slight dip once again,” added M Mohapatra, director general, IMD.
Meanwhile, the minimum temperature in Delhi dropped by a couple of notches on Friday and was recorded at 7.6°C, four degrees below normal. The maximum on Friday was 24.4 degrees, a degree below normal. Officials said the minimum is expected to consistently rise over the weekend.
IMD officials said that mostly clear skies persisted throughout Thursday and Friday, affecting the temperature. The minimum on Thursday was 10.8 degrees, a degree below the normal. The maximum on Friday was 24.4 degrees, a degree below the normal as compared to Thursday’s 26.2 degrees.
Isolated light rainfall/snowfall very likely over Western Himalayan Region during February 23 to 25, IMD has said.
“Scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rainfall/snowfall accompanied with thunderstorms & lightning very likely at isolated places over Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad on February 26; over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on February 26 and 27,” IMD added.
There is a 38% rainfall deficiency over northwest India since January 1, largely due to a lack of western disturbances in the early part of the year.
The variation this year was such that the country’s popular ski resorts, such as Gulmarg in Kashmir, were virtually barren for most of January, one of the coldest months. But western disturbances picked up, bringing snow (even an avalanche this week) to those regions.
A separate system will affect northeast India, where high moisture is seeping in from the Bay of Bengal. Under its influence, scattered to fairly widespread light/moderate rainfall/snowfall with thunderstorms, lightning is very likely over Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and light/moderate rainfall over Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on February 23. These regions are likely to see isolated to scattered light/moderate rainfall over the region on February 24 and 25, the government weather forecaster added.
Isolated heavy rainfall/snowfall was also very likely over Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim on Friday.
Several more weather disturbances were at play over the country. A cyclonic circulation lay over south Telangana and a trough ran from this cyclonic circulation to south Tamil Nadu, while another cyclonic circulation lay over south Chhattisgarh.
An anti-cyclone --- marked by high pressure, as opposed to low pressure in cyclonic circulations --- was in the lower levels over the Bay of Bengal and was likely to strengthen during the next few days. Under its influence, isolated light to moderate rainfall was very likely over West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand during February 23 to 27, the IMD bulletin said.
Scattered to fairly widespread light-to-moderate rainfall accompanied with thunderstorms and lightning with gusty winds (speed reaching 30-40 kmph gusting to 50 kmph) were very likely at isolated places over Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh on February 26 and 27.
Hailstorm activity is also very likely at isolated places over Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand on February 26.
