The winter season spans for only for two months, i.e. January and February. Annual rainfall for the country is 1187 mm out of which winter rains contribute 41.4 mm, which is 3.5% of the annual rains. The main contributors to these rains are the hills of the North India along with the Indo Gangetic plains starting right from Punjab and going up till Bihar and the northeastern states of the country.
Central and southern states of the country are the minimal contributors. Meanwhile, the least contributor is the state of Gujarat which is almost nil.
As we all know that winters made a late beginning this time, i.e. by December. Winters picked up pace in January and by the end of January, winters were caught up well. The month of February has been doing immensely well in comparison to January. This was on account of series of active weather systems, wherein the trail of Western Disturbances has been moving across Jammu and Kashmir. When these systems have induced systems tagging along, the dimensions tend to be large. This season has witnessed ‘fourteen’ Western Disturbances in all.
If we talk characteristically, the month of February sees a greater number of Western Disturbances, wherein the frequency is more, and duration is less. It is vice-versa for the month of January.
If we talk about average rainfall, we see that Delhi records 19.3 mm of rains in January and 22.1 mm of rains in February. As per the records, this season has witnessed distinction of having large excess in seven divisions and four under excess category out of the 36 divisions in all. This winter season, Delhi has recorded a whooping of 57.9 mm of rains against 32.7 mm which is 17% excess.
Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are rain surplus by 102%, 77%, 19% and 35%, respectively. Whereas in northeast, it is only Tripura which is rain surplus by 8%, rest of the northeastern states are substantially deficit exceeding the mark of 40%.
The desired weather activities over the hills acts as a lifeline for the subsequent months. Last year, the rains recorded during the winter season was very poor and it was deficit by 62%. Whereas, this year the rains have been surplus with 24% almost nearing the record of 26% in 2013.
Image Credit: The Better India
Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com