Madhya Pradesh has registered chilly and cold conditions over several parts of the state, since last one week. Single digit minimum temperatures, far below their average have been recorded, more over eastern and central parts of the state. Many parts of the state are as cold as extreme northern parts of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
There have been very few western disturbances, this season so far. Mostly, they were mild and inactive resulting limited weather activity, both in the mountains and plains of North India. As such. the state of Madhya Pradesh remains far from the reach of these winter systems, albeit some freak induced low may sometime breach the borders of the state.
Prolonged dry spell over entire north India has triggered cold conditions across the region. Parts of Rajasthan have witnessed pockets of cold wave conditions on few occasions. This cold airmass has trickled down the slopes of mountains and reached rather far up to the central parts, more so , the state of Madhya Pradesh. East-West oriented Vindhya and Satpura ranges have further escalated the freeze of north.
Gujarat and Odisha, the respective western and eastern sentinels of Central India, are the cosiest with double digit temperatures, through and through, the state boundaries. Long coastline is shielding both the ends from extreme cold conditions. Madhya Pradesh is land locked with large number of geographical diversification and therefore prone to extremities of weather.
Single digit minimum temperatures have been observed over multiple locations during last one week. In the run up to likely cold wave conditions shortly over the state, many cities on the lee and upwind side of mountain ranges have clocked lowest temperatures of 6-8 deg. Prominent among few being Raisen-7.2deg, Umaria-6.4deg, Nowgong-6.0deg, Malanjkhand- 6.3deg, Umaria-6.4deg, Gwalior-8.6deg and Narsinghpur, Chhindwara 9deg each. Such cold conditions are expected to continue, without any long break for the next 10days or so.