National weather forecast and temperatures: Thursday, January 23

An India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast has said that the mercury will dip on Saturday and Sunday (Republic Day) amid likely dense fog conditions across Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. This is even as an incoming western disturbance got moving at last, with the IMD marking its arrival over North Pakistan and adjoining Jammu & Kashmir this morning. The system was stuck over Afghanistan for the past couple of days, even as an unrelated cyclonic circulation (not an offspring circulation, which strong western disturbances often throw up) had preceded it over the plains of North-West India.

Next western disturbance by January 28

The next strong western disturbance will not come in until January 28 (next Tuesday), though a weaker one may precede it as early as tomorrow (Friday) and affect the hills of North-West India.

The first one is seen dropping rain and mountain snow from Thursday night into Saturday across Turkey, Syria and Jordan to Iraq, North Saudi Arabia and West and North Iran before moving into Afghanistan, Pakistan and North-West India. The latter is forecast to push into West Iran and spread rains into Qatar today, then the UAE and North Oman during this period.

The IMD has forecast mainly dry weather over the country till Sunday (Republic Day) except over the North-Eastern States, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, where isolated to scattered precipitation is likely. Dense fog is likely today over parts of North Rajasthan, Bihar, hills of Bengal, Sikkim, Odisha, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura; and on Saturday and Sunday over Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Cold wave conditions may prevail over Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi today and parts of Uttar Pradesh over the next three days. No significant change in day and night temperatures is expected over North, Central and West India until tomorrow (Friday), while minimum temperatures may gradually dip by 2-4 degrees Celsius over these areas on Saturday and Sunday.

Dense fog, cold wave conditions

So, the daily outlook for the weekend and beyond is as follows: Today: Dense fog in parts over Bihar, hills of Bengal, Sikkim and Odisha. Cold day conditions over hills of Bengal and Sikkim. Cold wave conditions over Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Strong winds (speeds reaching 45- to 55 km/hr) over the Comorin area. Fishermen are advised not to venture in this area.

Friday: Cold wave conditions over Uttar Pradesh. Saturday: Dense fog over Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Sunday: Dense fog over Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Monday: Dense fog over Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The fresh western disturbance entering the region will drop isolated to scattered rain over the hills and adjoining plains of North and East India.

This morning, dense fog covered parts of East India across Assam, Meghalaya and Bihar. Moderate fog was seen over East Madhya Pradesh and Tripura. Visibility had reduced to below 50 metres in Silchar and Purnea; and below 200 metres in Pendra Road and Kailashahar.

Among the major metros, New Delhi was foggy and coolest at 13 degrees Celsius at 9 am while Chennai too was foggy but the warmest at 28 degrees Celsius. Mumbai was greeted by partly cloudy conditions at 25 degrees Celsius even as haze was reported at 9 am. It was fair in Kolkata under fog expected to turn partly cloudy.

Kolkata woke up to foggy weather and a bit of a drizzle . Photo: Debasish Bhaduri

As for yesterday (Wednesday), the maximum (day) temperature of 37.1 degrees Celsius was recorded at Mangaluru Coastal Karnataka) and Kochi (Kerala) while the minimum (night) temperature of 3.3 degrees Celsius was reported from Fursatganj (East Uttar Pradesh) over the plains of the country.

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