Cold snap ends as night temperatures rise over North

Minimum (night) temperatures have improved from the recent lows in North-West India as the slightly colder regime moved to Central India during the 24 hours ending Thursday morning.

The lowest minimum temperature of 3.2 deg Celsius in the plains was, however, recorded at Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh, an India Met Department update said.

Heavy rain or snow has been forecast over the western Himalayas, especially over Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, over the weekend.

The US Centre for Climate Prediction too agreed with the outlook suggesting that most of the wet weather will be confined to the hilly regions of North-West India.

Meanwhile, dense to very dense fog drifted over north Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi during the morning hours on Thursday.

The lowest visibility of 25 metres was recorded at Churu and Pilani in Rajasthan. But Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar witnessed moderate to shallow fog in the morning in what is signs of normal winter climes.

Forecasts put out by the Busan, South Korea-based Asia-Pacific Climate Centre, predicted contrasting weather for North-West, Central and Peninsular India for the next three months.

During February, most of North-West India is expected to stay drier than normal, the forecast said. Affected areas include Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

In contrast, most of Central India and adjoining Peninsular India are expected to witness slightly above normal precipitation during February.

Affected areas include South Gujarat and adjoining Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka (except coastal region).

Coastal Karnataka, Kerala and most of Tamil Nadu may witness drier than normal conditions in February.

As for March, above normal rain is forecast to return to parts of North-West India, especially Jammu and Kashmir (the heaviest), Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, most parts of Rajasthan except its eastern parts, Gujarat and adjoining West Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Drier than normal regime will be spread out in March over most of Peninsular India (the driest being Coastal Karnataka and Kerala), Tamil Nadu, east Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

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