A warm winter so far

If you’re live in the city of Delhi, you would know what the actual meaning of the ‘dilli ki sardi’ is and how it sends a cold shiver down the spine! December weather in Delhi is not just a favorite of the city people but it also attracts foreign tourists, who travel to the capital every year especially in the months of December to go around for a ‘dilli darshan’. But the weather in Delhi has been quite the opposite this year and therefore it won’t be wrong to call this winter not just ‘not so cold’ but a pretty warm winter.

It’s the 19^th of December and most of us are still wearing only a thin layer or two and towards the afternoon, which turns warm and sunnier, you feel like taking even that one sweater off! Wondering why? Well it’s all because of the continuous passing of the ‘Western Disturbance’, with very little gap before the second arrives, that does not give time for the temperatures to fall, instead, leads to a rise in the minimums. That’s another reason forecasters can say it’s a ‘no fog situation’ this year. December weather in Delhi till now has seen only shallow fog in pockets in the early morning hours. Fog is related to the humidity levels and wind speed; if the humidity levels are low and wind speed is high, a pattern we saw this winter, fog remains close to zero. And because the fog remains nil, the day temperatures do not fall, skies remain clear and afternoons are hotter in spite of the strong northerly winds from the hills (8knots/18-19kmph). Every winter at least two to three zero visibility/dense fog days in the months of December are experienced (for example: Dec 25^th, 26^th and 27^th in the year 2010 observed a low visibility of below 100meters).

For the coming weeks too, the Skymet Weather  forecasts for December weather in Delhi shows no rain and no significant fog, thereby indicating that weather in Delhi will continue to be warm for the coming few days

Under the current trend, this year may prove to be the 'warmest winter' in the last 2 to 3 years with the December temperatures hovering between 24⁰C maximum (average) and 10.9⁰C minimum (average). However meteorologists at Skymet Weather Services predict that the biting cold winter will begin in Delhi once the New Year sets in. The January 2013 weather in Delhi will experience its usual drop in temperatures. “Our forecast models show temperatures below normal and dense fog hours in January”, says Mahesh Palawat, Head of the forecasting team of Skymet Weather Services.

Photo by Parth Joshi.