What’s the weather today: IMD forecast severe winter conditions in north India, heavy rain in south |
The India Meteorological Department has issued an All India Weather Summary and Forecast Bulletin. According to the bulletin issued at 19:45 IST on January 12, heavy rainfall is expected in parts of southern India, while severe cold wave conditions, dense fog, and ground frost have already engulfed major parts of northern, northwestern, and eastern India.As per the bulletin, much of north, northwest, and east India continues to face harsh winter conditions. The IMD has warned that cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are expected over several states, including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, and West Uttar Pradesh. The weather conditions are going to severely impact normal life, as the temperature goes down significantly during early morning and night hours throughout the day.
IMD weather bulletin
Cold day to severe cold day conditions have also been forecast in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, west Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand. Dense to very dense fog continues to be a great concern over the Indo-Gangetic plains, thereby cutting down visibility levels to less than 200 meters in many places and disrupting transport services. According to the IMD, very dense fog conditions will continue over Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Punjab until January 14, with isolated pockets of dense fog conditions possibly prevailing until January 18.Dense fog is also expected over West and East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, the Jammu region, and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim.
Rainfall in southern states
According to the IMD, isolated places across Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karaikal are likely to experience heavy rainfall. This area is also likely to witness thunderstorms along with lightning. This shows that there are instabilities in the atmospheric conditions over the southern part of the peninsula. Weather conditions during the day reveal that there is rainfall activity over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal, coastal Andhra Pradesh, along with south interior Karnataka.
Fog conditions in north, south and east India
Observations recorded on January 12 underline the severity of the fog situation. Zero visibility was recorded in Coonoor in the state of Tamil Nadu, while in the states of Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and Assam, some places recorded reduced visibility. There was also shallow fog in Assam and Uttarakhand. Temperature contrasts are fairly pronounced. The lowest minimum temperature reported from the Indian plains on January 12 is 0.6 degrees Celsius at Bhatinda in Punjab. At the other extreme, the highest maximum temperature reported is 36.6 degrees Celsius from Kottayam in Kerala, as per the IMD bulletin.Looking ahead, the IMD has forecast no significant change in minimum temperatures over northwest India for the next three days, followed by a gradual rise of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius during the subsequent four days. Maharashtra is expected to see a gradual rise of 2 to 3 degrees Celsius in minimum temperatures over the next 24 hours, after which temperatures are likely to stabilise. Gujarat is likely to experience a rise of 2 to 3 degrees Celsius in minimum temperatures, followed by a fall of a similar magnitude before stabilising in the following days.The possibility of ground frost is also predicted for Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and the state of Uttarakhand. Formation of frost could affect agricultural fields and water supply infrastructure, apart from posing risks to people with reduced immunity.The day-wise forecast helps in having a clearer idea about the expected developments in the weather conditions. On January 13, the possibility of heavy rain/thunders and severe cold wave/cold day conditions are expected to continue in some parts of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, and Karaikal, while severe cold wave and cold day conditions are expected to prevail in the entire north and northwest parts of the country. Dense to very dense fog conditions are expected to continue in the Indo-Gangetic plains.Between January 14 and January 18, it is expected that intensity will decrease. However, dense to very dense fog is expected to continue, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.There is likely to be mainly dry weather in central, northern, and Eastern India during the coming week, according to the seven-day rainfall forecast. Scattered rainfall is also likely over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on the 12th and 13th of January, over Kerala and Lakshadweep till the 14th of January.On the whole, the IMD alert report points towards a contrasting weather scenario that prevails over the entire region of India, as there are active rain systems over the southern part of the region, while the northern part experiences adverse weather conditions as a result of winters that set in.
