Dawn of New Year to bring cold comfort for North

An incoming western disturbance has announced its arrival as it lay straggled across the international border with one limb already extending to Jammu and Kashmir.

It is expected to offer marginal improvement to the chilly climes and thick fog over the plains of northwest India during the next couple of days.

But the 24 hours ending on Wednesday saw cold wave conditions (mercury lower than five deg Celsius below normal) over Uttar Pradesh.

The cold snap is likely to stay until the western disturbances gets its hind leg to move from north Pakistan and stamp its print too over Jammu and Kashmir. Then only can its warmth extend to Uttar Pradesh.

Likewise, dense to very dense enveloped at many places of Uttar Pradesh and at fewer places in north Rajasthan, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana during the morning hours.

The very dense fog that brings down visibility to 50 metres or below was confined to Ganganagar, Churu, Pilani, Bahraich, Kanpur, Varanasi, Hardoi, Patna and Bhagalpur.

Amritsar recorded the lowest night temperature at 1.6 deg Celsius, but it was an improvement over the zero degree of the previous morning.

On Wednesday, a network of three upper level cyclonic circulations linked places as flung apart as north Konkan-south Gujarat, the north-eastern states, and a third in the form of the well-marked low-pressure area over west-central Bay of Bengal.

All three have the capacity to modify weather in the respective regions with the Konkan system pumping in moisture to central and north-west India.

The one over north-east India will rustle up the moisture/fog available and slosh it around while the well-marked ‘low’ will continue to trigger rain over the peninsular east.

The two sea-based systems will serve to fetch some tropical warmth into the cold air prevailing over central India and parts of northwest India.

But this would not amount to much, if India Met Department outlook is any indication. It sees no significant change in night temperatures over northwest, central or east India during the next couple of days.

But some respite is on the cards with respect to the fog situation; the thick fog is expected to dissipate from very dense (visibility of 50 metres or below) to dense (200 metres or below).

The fog can extend from the Punjab-Haryana-Delhi-north Rajasthan all the way east and south-east to Nagaland-Meghalaya-Mizoram-Tripura, the Met Department said.

Cold day conditions are forecast for Punjab and Uttar Pradesh as the clouds from the western disturbance spread out, shielding the sun and preventing its rays from reaching the ground.

Cold wave conditions will be driven away to east Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, in the South, fishermen in coastal Andhra Pradesh have been advised caution while venturing out into the choppy seas.