Winter’s grip to loosen by next week

Delhiites will heave a sigh of relief as weathermen predict the approaching week to be warmer than the harsh December. Even as the “western disturbance” (WD) is likely to hit Delhi, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh around Sunday, a dry spell is expected throughout the week

WD brings clouds and rain in its wake, so temperature at night will rise to a comfortable level. December is the month when winter sets in North-west India as the minimum temperature falls below 4-5 degree resulting in a cold wave. This December was the clearest month in last 22 years with visibility unexpectedly high. It has recorded the coolest temperatures for a long span of time in the second half of the month.

Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, B.P. Yadav, Deputy Director-general at Regional Meteorological Centre in Delhi, explained that possible reasons of the longest coldspell. “In 2018, the second part of December was slightly colder than normal. We called it the third coolest month in last 50 years in Delhi, mainly because both the minimum and night temperatures constantly remained below normal,” he said.

“Usually, we receive the chill in atmosphere from the northerly wind coming from Himalayan side. WD makes changes in the wind pattern and there is no system to divert the pattern,” he added.

“Whenever snowfall occurs in the hills, temperatures go down to around zero, even sub-zero level. But since this time, there was no snowfall and the sky was clear, the temperature automatically fell to -8 to -10 degree in Kashmir valley, which should have been around 0 or -2 degree,” said Yadav.

Explaining this phenomenon, Yadav said, “The chill was coming from the northerly area was much more than usual. Since the sky was clear here, so the night constantly remained colder. This pattern continued for 15-20 days uninterruptedly as there was also no effect of WD.”

According to an IMD report, temperature is to remain slightly above normal over western Himalayan region till 17 January which may cause wide snow/rainfall activities. Moreover, minimum temperatures are to be above normal in some parts of Northwest, West and Northeast India.