Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, nestling in the hills of the North-West, are bracing for another round of harsh winter weather at the instance of a visiting western disturbance and its entourage.
As has already been forecast, the western disturbance is an active (intense) one, and likely to hurl in a signature cyclonic circulation in advance to trigger heavy rain and snow.
Western disturbance keeps date
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said this (Monday) afternoon that heavy rain/snow is likely at a few places with very heavy falls at isolated places over Jammu & Kashmir until tomorrow (Tuesday).
Heavy rain/snow is also forecast at isolated places over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Thunderstorms accompanied by lightning will likely hit Jammu & Kashmir while thunderstorms accompanied by hail and lightning may lash Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during the same period.
The IMD located the parent western disturbance over Afghanistan and adjoining Pakistan and an induced cyclonic circulation across the international border over North-West Rajasthan and its neighbourhood. The impact of the parent and the offspring circulations systems is likely to be the most intense over almost the entire North-Western parts of the country into Tuesday, and may reduce significantly thereafter. Offspring circulations that travel to the East ahead of the parent denote the strength and intensity of the latter.
Dense fog soon
Over the rest of the plains of the region, scattered to fairly widespread rain/thunderstorm with isolated heavy falls accompanied by hail/lightning are forecast over North Punjab, North Haryana and North-West Uttar Pradesh until tomorrow (Tuesday), with the combo reaching peak activity.
Weather charts also suggested that a follow-up western disturbance will hit the hills and plains of North-West India in quick succession from Wednesday, with peak intensity of precipitation likely to happen the very next day. A couple of relatively weak disturbances may drift across the region during the rest of the week but will likely not affect the region in as significant a manner.
During the 24 hours ended Monday morning, dense to very dense fog blanketed isolated pockets of Uttar Pradesh while it was dense over Punjab, Bihar, the hills of Bengal, Sikkim and Tripura. It was moderate over Jammu & Kashmir, West Rajasthan, Haryana, Assam, Meghalaya and Coastal Andhra Pradesh.
Mangaluru may be hottest
The fog reduced visibility to just 25 metres in Meerut and Varanasi; 50 m in Pantnagar, Patiala, Ambala, Lucknow, Fursatgunj, Patna, Bareilly, Bhagalpur, Cooch Behar, Agartala and Bapatla; and 200 m in Gulmarg, Bikaner, Karnal, Bahraich, Gorakhpur, Purnea, Jorhat and Kailashar on Sunday.
The highest maximum (day) temperature of 37.5°C was recorded at Karwar (Coastal Karnataka) while the lowest minimum (night) temperature of 5.4°C was recorded at Datia (West Madhya Pradesh) over the plains of the country. This (Monday) afternoon, among major cities, Delhi was the coolest at 18°C while Chennai was the hottest at 28.6°C.
In the South, Chennai reported haze with mainly clear conditions forecast for the rest of the day while in Bengaluru, it was fair in the afternoon with a few clouds forecast towards the evening, when minimum temperatures might start to dip before hitting a low of 16°C.
The outlook for tomorrow (Tuesday) suggests that Mangaluru may top the maximum (day) temperature at 38°C while Srinagar and Shimla could record the lowest minimum temperature of -1°C.
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