Rain, thunder likely over northern India

nNEW DELHI: Two western disturbances (WD) will impact the northwestern region from April 6 to 9, according to India Meteorological Department. Officials said the disturbances will bring rain and thundershowers in the western Himalayas and northern plains.

Due to the back-to-back WDS, the maximum temperature is also likely to fall by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius for a few days even after the WDS move away. Delhi may receive mild rains but Punjab and Haryana will get moderate rain and thundershowers.

According to IMD’S Sunday bulletin, a WD is impacting the western Himalayan region now and another fresh WD is likely to impact the region from April 9 onwards. “Both of these systems are likely to affect weather across northwest India from April 6 with peak during April 7 to 9, with scattered to fairly widespread rain/ thundershowers likely over western Himalayan region during April 7 to 9 and over Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi on April 7,” the bulletin said.

Thunderstorms, hail and gusty winds are also likely over many parts of northwest India during this period. Scattered to fairly widespread rainfall and thunderstorm is also likely over northeast India during April 8 and 9 and squall over Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on April 7 and 8.

“The present WD has started impacting Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh. We can feel the impact in Delhi-ncr on April 7 when light rain, thunder and gusty winds blowing at about 30 to 40 kmph is likely. We are hoping that the temperature will increase after April 10, reaching about 36 to 37 degree C. The maximum temperature may drop marginally before that because of the WDS. The impact of the WDS reduces substantially in this season but this year, there has been an unusually high number of WDS in winter also,” said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre.

“WDS are always there but they move northwards in summer. Occasionally, they also come southwards. This year anyway, the impact of WDS has led to a lot of rain in the plains,” said K Sathi Devi, head, national weather forecasting centre.

RK Jenamani, senior scientist at the centre, said this year the country is seeing chains of WDS.