Expect brief bout of slight chill before warmth: IMD

NEW DELHI: Winter in northwest India is virtually over, although minimum temperatures are expected to fall by 3-5 degrees Celsius till Monday, bringing a brief bout of chill before nights get warmer again by around 4-6 degrees in the following days, India Meteorological Department said on Saturday.

“A gradual fall of 3-5 degrees Celsius in the minimum temperatures is likely over many parts of northwest India till February 13,” the weather office predicted. After Monday, night temperatures will gradually start rising by around 4-6 degrees in the next three days, it said.

A similar trend of falling minimum temperatures will also be seen in central India, where the difference will be of around 3-5 degrees till February 14, the Met department said.

Till February 15, the maximum temperature over northwest India will hover between 25 and 30 degrees, while the minimum will be between nine and 12 degrees, according to M Mohapatra, director general at the weather bureau.

“We will not see the kind of chill associated with winters in the coming days, even if the minimum dips to nine degrees,” he said. “Normally, that cold is associated with a low minimum and, in the absence of any active western disturbance, it will not go below nine degrees, so the winter cold is over for the region.”

Several parts of northwest India, including Delhi, have been experiencing higher than normal temperatures in the past few days. Typically, winter conditions last till at least the second or third week of February, but this has been changing recently, with Delhi recording a high of 28.7 degrees on January 20, 2019, and logging 30.4 degrees on February 10, 2021.

The reason behind high temperatures experienced in Delhi and other parts of northwest India was that the winds changed direction from northwesterly to south-westerly, which led to warmer winds blowing over Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather Services, a private forecaster.

“Wind speeds also reduced, which also contributed in a spike in temperatures over northwest India.

Temperatures will continue to be high on Saturday, and from Sunday, northwesterly winds will start flowing again over northwest India, which will lead to a fall,” Palawat said. The northwesterly winds bring in a colder draft from the Himalayan regions.