A strong Western Disturbance is expected to affect the northwest region of the country during the next two days starting from today. Heavy to very heavy snowfall is expected at a few places over Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in the next two days. There will be snowfall in Uttarakhand thereafter at one or two places.
Effect of the Western Disturbance will also be felt in the plains of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and West Uttar Pradesh during the next couple of days. The induced cyclonic circulation with the Western Disturbance lies over Rajasthan that can give thunder showers or rain at isolated places in these areas under a partly cloudy sky.
But the real effect of the Western Disturbance will be on the winds. The low pressure area that originated in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean is filled with warmer and moist winds. They will hold the cool and dry northerly winds that were keeping the minimum temperatures down. The minimum temperatures would increase a bit during the next 24 to 48 hours as easterly winds will approach the region.
The exit of the Western Disturbance after January 18 could bring down the night temperatures in the northwest region considerably and another period of severe cold could be experienced by the weekend as icy northwesterly and northerly winds would prevail thereafter.
The same winds (northerly to northwesterly winds) will continue to affect the Indo-Gangetic plains during the next two days. Winds are slow and the minimum temperatures are low and the easterly reaching here has moisture content. So, foggy conditions will be witnessed in the Gangetic plains especially in east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
In the northeastern parts of the country, the remnants of the passing Western Disturbance, mostly in the form of upper air cyclonic circulation, could lead to rain at one or two places over Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya during the next 72 hours.
Photograph by Tanu600