January is coldest month of the year for Delhi when freezing temperatures are common. But the rapid change in the global weather patterns, and December 2012 temperatures being recorded as the warmest in years had concerned many and led us to believe that the winter season will hardly be cold this time. The weather in Delhi in January 2013 was expected to be warmer than usual too. However, it’s been quite the opposite as the New Year began on an icy note (lower than the minimum temperature of January 2nd 2012) and brought back the winter cheer. Head of the forecasting team at Skymet, Mahesh Palawat says, “This good news of extremely cold weather in Delhi will prevail till mid-January and such cold conditions may persist in other parts of north, northwest India too.”
As compared to the January 2012, the winter weather in Delhi in 2013 will be colder and temperatures will be below normal due to feeble and less number of ‘Western Disturbances’ that generally help the mercury rise as it prevails. On the other hand, the wind pattern too shall not change from northwesterly to southwesterly (the latter wind being humid, increases the temperature) and thus the direct flow of the former will make both the day and night temperatures stay below normal. For the last week of January, the Delhi weather could improve and be pretty close to it’s normal figures as the wind pattern may change gradually.
As this news is not entirely happy and comforting for Ramu Singh and the 78 million other homeless in India, who sleep under flyovers and suffer due to the cold weather each year, nonprofit organizations and state bodies have geared up to overcome the expected rise in death toll due to the cold this January. Police records show 6,861 homeless deaths were reported from 2007 to 2011 due to the harsh Delhi weather.
Photo by Ahron de Leeuw.