At present, plains of Northwest India are witnessing wide variation in minimum temperatures. At one point of time, these are increasing rapidly, while during the other, a falling trend is being witnessed. The major reason for this continuous rise and fall in temperature can be attributed to frequent change in wind direction.
As mentioned earlier, direction of wind plays a very important role in governing the weather across the country. Whenever winds blow from northwest directions, temperatures drop, as these winds coming from north directions are cold and dry in nature. On the other hand, winds from the southeast or east directions are warm and humid in nature. Thus, these tend to increase minimums.
On January 8 and 9, temperatures dropped by 1℃ to 2℃ across entire northwestern plains of the country. However, in the last 24 hours, a notable change has been observed in minimums. Since the last 24 hours, entire northwestern plains of the country such as Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan have been witnessing an increasing trend. This is due to the approach a fresh Western Disturbance which has resulted a change in wind direction to south-easterlies.
Thus, temperatures have increased by 2℃ to 3℃ over many places. On account of this increasing trend, we expect a further increase of 1℃ to 2℃ during next 48 hours too. Thus, the winter chill which was being felt some days before during late night and early morning hours will make an exit for at least some time.
Let’s quickly compare minimums as on 07/01/2019 and 11/01/2019-
However, this rising trend will be short lived, as after the passage of Western Disturbance, the icy cold winds from Jammu & Kashmir as well as Himachal Pradesh will once again drop the temperatures around January 14 and 15.
Further, with the popular winter time Punjabi folk festival ‘Lohri’ approaching, it is important to know how weather will treat the celebrations. With the increasing trend in minimums, severe winter chill will remain absent on the day of ‘Lohri’. Thus, people could pleasantly enjoy the festival with bonfire, song, dance and cheers. Moreover, chances of dense fog on that day are completely ruled out.
Further, the festival of ‘Lohri’ is followed by an another exciting celebration known as ‘Festival of Kites- Makar Sankrant’. However, weather is expected to change its mood on that day and dense fog would make an appearance over northern plains of the country due to clear sky conditions, fall in temperatures as well as in the presence of light winds.
Image Credits – Wikipedia
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather
