The Hindu Business Line : Weak westerlies bring splotches of rain

Feeble western disturbances have started venturing into Jammu and Kashmir right under the nose of a domineering high-pressure zone on the Pak-Afghan border.

Stray moisture kicked up by these systems will be emptied as splotches of rain and snow over the northernmost parts of the region. Elsewhere in the north, however, a cold wave triggered by the passage of a preceding western disturbance sustained.

An India Meteorological Department update said that cold wave conditions would continue over Punjab and the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir during the next 24 hours. A second feeble western disturbance lying in wait over north Pakistan is forecast to impact Jammu and Kashmir around Saturday.

SEVERE COLD

Severe cold wave conditions also prevailed in some parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and at isolated places in Jharkhand, east Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Saurashtra and Kutch. In the east, similar conditions were reported from parts of Bihar, Chhattisgarh and at isolated places in Nagaland-Manipur-Mizoram-Tripura, West Bengal and Sikkim. In central India, Gujarat, Vidarbha and Madhya Pradesh too were left shivering in the cold.

Cold wave conditions are prevailing over most parts of central India, many parts of Punjab, the Jammu division of J&K and east India as well as parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Current meteorological analysis suggests that they are likely to continue over central and east India for two more days.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts continued to predict a low pressure region inching its way across western Rajasthan around February 20 and moving in an east-southeast direction. Gusts of westerlies have been forecast to prevail across the plains of the northwest ahead of its arrival.

RAIN IN SOUTH

In the South, a cyclonic circulation over Lakshadweep area and adjoining Kerala has shifted position overnight to Lakshadweep and adjoining Maldives area. Another circulation lay over south Tamil Nadu and adjoining Kerala and a trough from this system ran north to north Madhya Maharashtra through interior Karnataka.

According to a forecast by the Regional Met Centre, Chennai, rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at many places over south coastal Andhra Pradesh and south interior Karnataka and at a few places over South Tamil Nadu, north coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Kerala and north interior Karnataka.

Isolated rain or thundershowers are likely to occur over north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Telangana and coastal Karnataka. The US National Centres for Environmental Prediction sees the ongoing rain session in the southern peninsula tapering off by February 20.