‘Cold day’ conditions generated when clouds shield the sun are likely to continue over Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for two more days and over Vidarbha for one more day, the India Met Department (IMD) said in an outlook on Wednesday.
This is even as a prevailing cold wave to severe cold wave conditions abated over North-West India as a fresh western disturbance left Iran and entered the central parts of Afghanistan en route to Pakistan and North-West India.
But, as was forecast on Tuesday, the disturbance has already induced the formation of an offspring cyclonic circulation, as intense ‘active’ western disturbances are bound to, which is kicking up snowy and showery weather over North-West India.
The combination is likely to cause fairly widespread to widespread rain/snow over the hills on Tuesday and Wednesday and isolated to scattered rain/thundershowers over the plains during the next three days.
Isolated hailstorm/thunderstorms are also likely over the hills (Western Himalayas) and the adjoining plains on both days, the IMD forecast said.
Subsequently, a fresh western disturbance is likely to affect the hills on February 4 (Monday next) and the northern plains from the very next day, triggering heavy and widespread rainfall.
Polar vortex
The shifting weather over the North and North-West India does not even merit comparison with what is unfolding across the northern latitudes (closer to the Arctic Circle).
The alternating western disturbances interspersed with the cold waves here are minor perturbations of full-blown low-pressure areas, or even snowstorms, spewing ice/snow, sending parts of the US and Europe into a historic freeze.
This is being attributed to a slight imbalance in the way low-pressure/high-pressure areas over the Arctic Circle normally operate, creating a vacuum into which icy winds rush in. The jet streams, or rivers of high-speed winds flowing thousands of feet above ground, perambulating the globe bring this cold in varying intensities to these geographies depending on how far they are situated from the Arctic Circle.
India is situated almost 9,000 km to the South, and enjoys protection from the biting cold, thanks mainly to the imposing presence of the Himalayas, which deflect the coldest of these winds away.