Republic Day of India figures amidst peak winter season. Extremities of weather in terms of Fog, Chill, Rain, Clouds and Breeze always hound the grand celebrations. However, the national festival did not confront any major challenge on weather front to subdue the festivities, in the past.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, there was 2 year hiatus of grand celebrations as India did not have any foreign head of state as chief guest. Covid protocol was followed during the customary commemorations for the last 2 years.
At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, will be the chief guest at India's 74th Republic Day celebrations on Jan 26, 2023. A 120-member military contingent from Egypt will also be taking part in the celebrations.
Weather plays an important role for the conduct of grand show. While icy winds and the foggy weather may become deterrent sometime for the public, rain and low clouds, if any, may raise the degree of difficulty for the parade and flypast, down the lane of Kartavya Path, formerly called as Rajpath or Kingsway.
Weather gods have not held the celebration to any ransom for major parts of the event for the last one decade or even more. There was mild interruptions, in terms of light rain during the parade, in 2015 & 2017. Coincidentally, it rained heavily during the later part of the day on 26th Jan 2017. This may as well be considered an outlier, as the weather has mostly behaved on most occasions, before and after this 'dampener'.
An active western disturbance will approach the Western Himalayas on 23rd Jan. The weather system will induce a cyclonic circulation over Rajasthan. These two systems will compliment each other for the next about 4-5 days. Under the combined influence of circulation and western disturbance, layer of medium clouds is likely to descend over Delhi and adjoining parts. This might as well be embedded with some thunderstorm on 24, 25 and 26th Jan.
Though, capital city is positioned on the fringes of this weather activity but can not be absolved completely of some hinderance, at this stage. Situation need to be watched closely and tracked judiciously. A review could be taken, when closer to the date, to assess weather conditions during the 'window' of celebrations.
