The Hindu Business Line : No respite from chill for north, northwest

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan. 28 Chilly conditions continued to hold good in most of the north and northwest of the country with weathermen predicting hardly any respite for the next three days at least.

Cold wave conditions are prevailing over parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, east Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand where minimum temperatures are 4-6 deg C below normal, says an update from the India Meteorological Department. Ground frost conditions are likely over some parts of Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The situation might undergo some change ahead of the arrival of the next western disturbance around February 2 when the rising, moist air in its front and the resultant cloud formation would combine to trap whatever available solar heating over land and help smother the cold. It may also throw up an induced circulation that could help rev up the snow/rain over the hills and parts of the plains.

A standout feature of the season is the filtering-in of the Artic cold from the far northwest into the prevailing westerlies blowing into much southerly latitudes of the country, bringing down temperatures even in peninsular India.

For instance, the cold wave has in this manner got sieved variously into Vidarbha, Marathawada, Madhya Maharashtra, Telangana, north interior Karnataka, coastal Karnataka, Konkan, Goa, Rayalaseema and parts of Tamil Nadu and even Kerala. The cooler climes prevailing in its neighbourhood to the immediate north and northwest have kept the mercury under check even in Chennai.