Country has been witnessing varying shade of winters, particularly northwestern plains. While there have number of chilly days so far in the season, but surprisingly cold day conditions have been missing. Usually these conditions make there appearance as early as in December. In fact, cold day conditions remained absent during January as well, which is a peak of winter month.
'Cold Day' is a condition when the day temperatures decrease below 16°C in a particular place. Such weather condition is more prevalent in northern plains of the country including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi- NCR and also along the foothills e.g. Jammu, Chandigarh and Pathankot or even in northeastern pockets.
Cold Day condition might be observed owing to various reasons such as-
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Thick and Dense Fog
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Dense Clouding (blocks sunshine to reach the ground)
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Continuous Rains
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Strong Breeze
All these factors lead to a drop in temperatures over an area. Clouding and rains are observed when an area is triggered by a weather system- either ‘Main’ or ‘Induced’. Thus, leading to a strong weather over the plains. Fog is a result of cold air present in the atmosphere, combined with high levels of moisture and usually occurs when the weather system moves away.
Cold Days are more frequent in the period starting from mid-December to January when Winters are at its peak. Let’s take a look at the country-wide data for the month of January, last year-
Looking at the statistics for this season so far in the month of January, we see:
We infer that just like last year, even this year Delhi-NCR is on the same track and hasn’t observed any 'Cold Day' so far.
In the coming days however, a promising wet spell is being forecast which will cover entire northern plains starting from Rajasthan, covering Punjab, Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This will be a pretty prolonged spell commencing from January 20 and going beyond January 26-27. This weather activity along with persistent cloud cover would pave way for Cold Day conditions.
And this time, even Delhi might possibly see a Cold Day after long. Once, the rains clear up, we can experience dense fog. This way, the chances for Cold Day might just double up.
Also read: Winters rains to lash Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Agra, Jaipur, Ambala; Showers to peak on Jan 22
Image Credits – Livemint
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather