After witnessing first spell of widespread winter rains, parts of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have now come under the grip of Cold Day Conditions. These conditions are declared when the day temperatures in the plains drop to 16°C or less.
Persistent clouding with intermittent rains led to significant drop in the day maximums on Tuesday. Places like Pathankot, Jalandhar, Patiala, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Ambala, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Chandigarh, Meerut and Dehradun saw mercury falling below 16°C.
Yesterday, Jammu recorded the lowest day temperature at 10.4°C, which was 8°C below the normal. This was followed by Pathankot recorded day temperature at 11°C, which was 7°C below normal. All in all, the plains recorded day temperatures which was six to ten degrees below the normal mark.
The wet spell over the hills initiated on January 20 and kicked off in the plains on January 21 and continued till January 22. Rain and thundershowers over the hills are still on a move, while rains have reduced in the plains. The national territory Delhi got clearance by later part of Tuesday, whereas states of Punjab and Haryana also saw seizure but little late than Delhi.
There has been record breaking rainfall on January 21 and January 22 over the plains of the country. As per the statistics, Delhi has broken the record for the month of January of last 10 years by recording 48 mm of rains against the normal of 19.3 mm of rains. Pathankot and Ludhiana have also surpassed the monthly average rainfall for January, by recording 94 mm and 54 mm of rains, respectively. It is safe to say that Punjab and Haryana have achieved their monthly normal well before the month end.
With these recent rains, the minimums had risen but maximums took a dip. Although, the diurnal variation on January 22 was less but it was not as less as expected. Diurnal variation is the difference between maximum and minimum temperatures.
Since yesterday, western and southern parts of Punjab, Delhi and NCR are on a clearing note. The foothills of Punjab and Haryana would find clearance with due time. Now, once the entire episode of rains comes to an end over the plains of North India, the maximums will eventually rise. This would be on account of reduction in clouding and commencement of cold and chilly winds fro north/ north-westerly direction.
However, Delhi-NCR managed to seek comfortable weather despite heavy rains on January 21 and January 22. As per the weathermen at Skymet Weather, in the coming days of January also we don’t see any Cold Day Conditions for Delhi, wherein the maximums recorded yesterday was 19.4°C.
Now, as the system is moving eastward, the rain belt would shift over parts of Uttar Pradesh, wherein light to moderate rains would be seen over the state till January 25 and 26.
Image Credit: India TV
Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com