The impact of a moisture-laden western disturbance over Jammu & Kashmir and associated clouding was apparent overnight on Thursday with night temperatures rising above normal in the North.
In the South, though, it is getting cooler with a remnant cold wave active until now in the North, just about filtering in and bringing down night temperatures appreciably.
Mercury dips
The fact that the South is bereft of any clouds was also a factor in driving up daytime temperatures, with Karwar in Coastal Karnataka recording the highest at 36 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
The India Met Department (IMD) said that had been lowered appreciably over North interior Karnataka; at a few places over Madhya Maharashtra, Telangana, Rayalaseema and South interior Karnataka.
The mercury also fell appreciably over Vidarbha, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Odisha, Saurashtra, Kutch and Himachal Pradesh, Konkan, Goa and Coastal Karnataka.
The western disturbance had raised the mercury level in West Rajasthan, West Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Punjab.
There is no prospect of an immediate reversal of the cooler climes in the South, which would only happen if moisture-laden clouds descend over the landscape.
This is being ruled out for now, despite a tropical cyclone over the South China Sea forecast to enter the Andaman Sea very soon. But it would stay too far out of the East Coast for comfort, and move away.
Storm in bay
The IMD said that it had located the rare January cyclone ‘Pabuk’ over South China Sea, about 1,500 km east-south-east of Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, on Thursday.
It is forecast to move west-northwestwards and emerge into the Andaman Sea around the forenoon of Saturday and cross the Andaman Islands around evening/night of Sunday.
Thereafter, it is likely to move north-northwestwards (initially eyeing the arc of the Bengal, Bangladesh and Myanmar coasts) and then recurve north-eastwards to the Myanmar coast early next week.
The Andaman & Nicobar Islands are the only land feature under India's territorial jurisdiction that would be impacted by the storm with heavy rain forecast at many places along with high winds.
Squally winds with speeds reaching up to 50 km/hr and gusting to 60 km/hr may commence over the Andaman Sea along and off the South Myanmar and Thailand coasts from Friday.
The wind speed will increase, gradually rising to 65 km/hr gusting to 75 km/hr over the Andaman Sea on Saturday and over the Andaman Islands, East-Central and South-East Bay of Bengal.