The first active Western Disturbance of this Winter approached Jammu and Kashmir on November 3, 2019. On and off intense weather activities continued until the end of January. Now, as we are approaching the second half of February the Western Disturbances will start shifting northwards to the upper latitudes.
The impact of these systems will be felt in the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, North Pakistan and northern parts of Afghanistan. Major activities will be seen in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The impact has already reduced to a great extent from the lower regions of South Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Western Disturbances are the major harbingers of weather activities over the hills. As a matter of fact, Western Disturbances continue to travel from West to East throughout the year. However, it happens only during the month of October and February that these systems travel in the lower latitudes. The months of December and January is when North India sees the peak intensity of Western Disturbances.
By the end of February, they tend to travel in the upper latitudes and their effect is very less in the Indian region of the Western Himalayas. The same scenario is being witnessed in the country, during this Winter as well.
In fact, most of the weather activities including the Western Disturbances are governed by the position of the Sun in comparison to the Earth. As a matter of fact, the Sun starts travelling northwards beginning December 22.
Similar is the case for Western Disturbances as well which have now started travelling North. As a result, the intensity and frequency of Western Disturbances will keep on reducing over the Indian subcontinent.
Although occasional moderate to intense Western Disturbances reach the Western Himalayas at the end of February a few make it to March beginning. These occurrences are however quite rare.
So, chances of heavy to very heavy snowfall are now very less over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, North Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan will continue to receive good rain in the wake of the Western Disturbances until the end of March.
Image Credits – Prokerala.com
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather
