Wet weather in store for the North

Hills and plains of North-West India are bracing to face the first productively wet phase of the year, with back-to-back western disturbances expected from across the international border.

An ‘intense’ disturbance could likely lead to a wet spell over the hills off North-West India and adjoining plains from Sunday to Wednesday.

Isolated cold wave conditions are likely to prevail over Punjab for a day.

Remnant circulation

An ‘intense disturbance’ is one that digs deeper into the South along its route and mops up moisture from the North Arabian Sea (off Gujarat-Konkan). It could even throw an offspring cyclonic circulation either over West Rajasthan or Haryana.

This circulation can impact weather conditions over the area even as its parent waits across the international border over East Afghanistan or North Pakistan.

On Monday, a remnant trough from a previous disturbance persisted over Nepal, Sikkim and the neighbouring region, extending its influence over parts of East and North-East India.

The India Met Department (IMD) has said that shallow to moderate fog is very likely at isolated places during the morning hours over East India and the plains of North-West India until Tuesday ,and over North-East India for the next five days.

The disturbance which had already caused widespread rain/snow over Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh for the past three days has moved away eastwards (leaving the remnant over Sikkim). The successor disturbances entering consecutively over North-West India will cause isolated to scattered rain/snow over these regions from Tuesday night, persisting into the subsequent five days as well.

Fairly widespread rain/snow has been forecast over Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

Outlook from Saturday to Monday suggests that fairly widespread to widespread rain/snow is likely over the hills, while isolated to scattered rain is predicted over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi.

Fall in temperature

The arrival of the westerly systems means night (minimum) temperatures are likely to rise by 2-3 degrees over parts of North-West India due to cloud cover, likely ending the cold wave.

Until this happens by Tuesday night, temperature may fall by about two degrees over parts of Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and West Uttar Pradesh. They may dip even lower over Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for next three days.

Meanwhile, the IMD has warned that above normal night minimum (night) temperatures are likely to prevail over parts of North-West India from Sunday as an intense western disturbance drops anchor over the region.

In the South, on the country, a trough persists in easterlies from the Comorin-Maldives area to North Interior Karnataka — across North Kerala and South Interior Karnataka — bringing clouds and likely triggering hit-or-miss showers in the region.

COMMENT NOW