Delhi braces for rain, hailstorms this weekend

Delhi including the entire northwestern plains in Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh could receive rain along with hailstorm during this weekend. The possibility of rain/thunderstorm or hailstorm has risen due to approach of warmer land winds from Afghanistan and Pakistan to these parts where cool and dry winds already exist making the air mass unstable that cause intense thunderstorms. Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist at Skymet weather says that in such conditions, relatively cool dry air superimposed with very warm and humid air and the unstable air is necessary to produce large updraft speeds, fast enough to keep a developing hailstone from falling to the ground.

He further elaborates that small ice particles that form above the freezing level in the thunderstorm collect a layer of frozen rain water, forming a water shell. If these growing hailstones fall into another updraft, they can continue to grow, until they finally become too large for the updraft to carry them, or they get caught up in a downdraft, and they finally reach the ground. Delhi has seen other such hailstorms with heavy rain on 18th of January this month.

Bad weather accompanied with snowfall and rain is likely to hit the weather in north and northwest India at the start of the first week in February when a strong Western Disturbance will arrive over Jammu & Kashmir on 2nd February night or 3rd February morning. So the start to the week could have rain at a few places in northwest plains of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh. This period of rain would also have hailstorms. Once the Western Disturbance will move out of the region, cold weather with sharp drop in minimum temperatures will continue to hit lives in these parts for next few days.

 

Photograph by Adam_d