As people get prepared to usher in the New Year, easterlies have started improving the severe cold spell which was impacting northwest India for nearly a fortnight now.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the wind direction changed from north-westerly (which brought cold winds from the Himalayas to the northern plains) to easterly (which brings moist air from the Bay of Bengal) which led to a marginal rise in the minimum temperature this morning.
The minimum temperature at Delhi’s Safdarjung observatory was 4.8 degrees C on Tuesday morning compared to 2.6 degrees C on Monday morning. Monday was also the coldest day with a maximum temperature of only 9.4 degrees C, the lowest since 1901.
“When the wind direction is changing, winds are at a low level creating conditions conducive for fog formation which is why we saw very dense fog yesterday. Today after the change in the wind direction, there was shallow fog all over north India. We are expecting the cold spell to abate from tomorrow,” explained Kuldeep Shrivastava, head of Regional Weather Forecasting Centre.
“The maximum temperature, he said, could be 3-4 degrees higher than what was seen yesterday when there was record low day temperatures across northwest India.
The minimum temperature on Tuesday at Hisar was 4.5 degrees C, 2.2 degrees C at Mount Abu, 3.4 degrees C at Bahraich, 3.8 degrees C at Bhatinda and 4.6 degrees C at Ambala indicating a marginal improvement in night temperatures compared to previous days.
Yesterday, severe cold day conditions were observed in most pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar; in isolated pockets over Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, north Rajasthan, and north Madhya Pradesh; Cold day conditions in isolated pockets over north Jharkhand and West Bengal.
There is likely to be a gradual improvement in cold day conditions from today. “These severe weather conditions are likely to abate from January 1, 2020, due to change in wind pattern at lower levels,” IMD’s morning bulletin said.
A western disturbance “seen as a cyclonic circulation over Afghanistan and neighborhood in mid-tropospheric levels. Under its influence along with interaction with lower level easterlies, scattered to fairly widespread rainfall accompanied with thunderstorms, lightning and hail is also likely in major parts of northwest, east and adjoining central India during January 1 to 3, 2020,” the bulletin added.
