The Hindu Business Line : Chill in isolated pockets as fresh westerly system inches close

COLD wave conditions prevailed on Thursday over some parts of the plains of northwest India and in the east as a fresh western disturbance inched close to make a crossover into northwest India expectedly by Sunday.

Punjab, west Rajasthan and east Uttar Pradesh along with Bihar and Jharkhand saw mercury hover around the low to very low levels in isolated pockets during the last 24 hours, said Mr J.V. Singh of the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting.

But the approach of the fresh western disturbance will lead to abatement of the chilly conditions even from these areas, he told Business Line. Night temperatures are predicted to rise by about three deg C for three days from Saturday.

Concurrently, scattered to fairly widespread snowfall/rains is likely over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal while it will be isolated over the adjoining plains of Punjab and Haryana.

Commenting on the lack of expected rain activity from western disturbances this season, Mr Singh said all these systems except two had failed to penetrate the plains to the east and southeast. Instead they had largely headed northeast, a course that would make them caress only the hills of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal where they would dump snow.

Another observed feature is the winds that failed to measure up to speeds enough to blow away chances of development of fog. The winds that prevailed had measured up to being light or at best moderate. This actually aided the `mixing' at the ground level, triggering the formation of radiation fog that engulfed many parts of the north and northwest from time to time this season.

An India Meteorological Department (IMD) update said that on Wednesday, the lowest minimum temperature of 0.0° C was recorded at Adampur in Punjab. The IMD also warned about the possibility of ground frost in some parts of Punjab and north Rajasthan during the next two nights.

Meanwhile, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has predicted the possibility of two weather disturbances to the east and west along the same latitude connecting west-central and east-central India during the next five-day period. A third event has been forecast to take place over southwest Arabian Sea.

The National Centres for Environmental Prediction was largely in agreement with this outlook except the one predicted over east-central India. But the ECMWF model persisted with this outlook and even predicted a flare-up of the system over east India by Wednesday next before it petered out.

In the South, isolated rain/thundershowers have been forecast for the southern parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Rains are likely over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.

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