The northern and southern extremes of the country may witness moderate to severe weather though contrasting in the way they would manifest, as dense fog is set to swap places with severe cold over the hills and plains in North-West India during the next few days while a rogue depression is about to set up moderate to heavy rain over parts of the South Peninsula.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) said high the moisture levels left behind a preceding western disturbance will take advantage of the light winds to stall, and sustain dense to very dense fog over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh for next two days. Dense fog will continue to hang over parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh for the subsequent three days.
Dense fog, severe cold
Dense fog is also indicated for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North Rajasthan, Bihar, the hills of West Bengal, Sikkim and Tripura during the next two-three days. Dense fog situation is expected to persist since another western disturbance, though not an active one, is on its way towards North-West India. It was located over Afghanistan and neighbourhood on Friday evening.
Dry and cold north/north-westerly winds from the Himalayas will bring the chill to the plains with cold wave conditions settling over isolated pockets over Punjab and Haryana from Sunday to Tuesday and over Saurashtra and Kutch on Saturday and Sunday. Cold day to severe cold day conditions are likely over parts of Punjab, Haryana and West and East during next two days.
Depression off Sri Lanka
Thursday’s depression over South-West Bay of Bengal lay closest to land about 450 km East-North-East of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 570 km East of Nagapattinam and 600 km East- South-East of Chennai. It will move slowly, make a loop, and then move to the West-South-West towards the Comorin area as forecast already, and across Sri Lanka in the next two days.
Heavy rain forecast
The IMD has forecast heavy rainfall over south coastal Tamil Nadu on Sunday and Monday; over South Kerala on Monday; and over the Lakshadweep Islands on Tuesday. Fishermen are advised not to venture into the South-West Bay and along and off Sri Lanka coast until Sunday; Gulf of Mannar and Comorin and along and off South Tamil Nadu and west Sri Lanka coasts until Monday; and the seas Lakshadweep and adjoining South-East Arabian Sea on Tuesday.
An extended outlook from Wednesday to Friday said scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rainfall may break out over Tamil Nadu and Kerala while it would be isolated to scattered light/moderate over coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Karnataka and the Islands to both sides of the South Peninsula. Isolated to scattered light rainfall/snowfall is likely over the hills of North-West India and North-East India due to movement of western disturbances from West to East.