The Hindu Business Line : Fog beginning to lift ahead of westerly system

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan. 1 Fog enveloped parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar during the 24 hours ending Thursday morning, according to an India Meteorological Department (IMD) update.

Fog density has reduced but IMD saw shallow fog conditions prevailing over the plains of the northwest and adjoining east India during the morning hours of the next two days as well.

The minimum temperature around Delhi hovered in the 8 degree Celsius-range, which is below the threshold of 10 degree Celsius considered ideal for fog formation with moisture levels and wind pattern also chipping in.

Cold day conditions prevailed over Haryana and Delhi where maximum temperatures climbed to less than the 16 degree Celsius-mark. This came about as a prevailing western disturbance exited the region to the east-northeast exposing the chill in its tail.

MAY LOOK UP

But minimum temperatures are set to look up with the projected arrival of the ‘warm head’ of a successor western disturbance around Sunday. Embedded with a cyclonic circulation, the system is forecast to affect the western Himalayan region and adjoining plains of the northwest for at least two days.

The showers may progressively spill into central India, according to forecasts by the US-based Centre for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies.

Meanwhile, the US Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction system persisted with its outlook for the buzz in the Bay of Bengal to get louder towards the middle of the month. An IMD update on Thursday said that a preparatory trough of low pressure in the southeast Bay shifted overnight west to the southwest Bay.

The unfolding weather over the peninsula would be decided thanks to the western disturbance in the northwest playing cahoots with the building trough in the Bay. The seasonal anti-cyclone spread over northwest and central India would find itself trapped in between.

‘CRUMBLING’ IMPACT

The anti-cyclone would get crumbled in the process, with its northern and southern flanks getting compromised. This would make the way clear for the trough in the westerlies to wheel into the northwest.

To the South, moisture-laden easterlies would manage to get a look-in over Sri Lanka and in due course over peninsular India. This scenario more or less fits in with seasonal forecasts made by a few models suggesting ‘above average rainfall’ for extreme south peninsula during January-February-March 2009.

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