Cold wave grips northwest India; likely to continue for 4 days

Vibha Sharma/Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Chandigarh, December 16

Cold wave and dense fog swept the plains of northwest India as temperatures continue to drop over the region with many parts of Delhi, Haryana and Punjab recording the season’s lowest temperatures so far.

At 2 degree Celsius, Amritsar was the coldest followed by Ganganagar (2.4) and Narnaul (3.4).

Tuesday was the coldest in several cities, including Delhi, where several parts recorded minimum temperature as low as 4.8 degree Celsius.

The IMD data on minimum temperature shows Delhi, Hisar, Narnaul, Jaisalmer, Ganganagar and Bareilly leading the pack with maximum deviations from the normal minimum temperatures at this time of the year.

Meanwhile, the IMD says cold wave conditions are very likely to continue in isolated pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, West Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan during the next four days.

It has also predicted severe cold wave conditions in isolated pockets of the region on December 18 and 19. 

“Due to the absence of any active Western Disturbance, below normal rain and snow is likely over Western Himalayan Region,” states the forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the December 17 to 23 period.

It has, however, forecast below normal rainfall over the Western Himalayan region for December 24 to 30 period.

From December 1 to 16, Punjab has received 55 per cent surplus rain, while Himachal recorded 65 per cent excess rain.

According to the IMD data, the hill state of Himachal received 23.9 mm rain against the normal of 14.5 mm for the December 1-16 period. The upper reaches of the state also received snow.

Punjab received 6.2 mm rain against the normal of 4 mm, marking a surplus of 55 per cent, revealed the IMD data.

Rains, however, were deficient in Haryana by 21 per cent, with the state recording 1.8 mm against the normal of 2.3 mm for the corresponding period.

Western Disturbance over north-west India and its induced cyclonic circulation along with moisture feeding from the Arabian Sea have been attributed to the widespread rains and snow in many parts of the region earlier this month.