Rajasthan is a huge state covering a major portion of the country. Its major two sub-divisions such as East and West Rajasthan vary largely in terms of weather activity. The eastern parts of Rajasthan receive almost double the amount of rainfall than western parts. However, in any case, rains are a rare affair for the entire state of Rajasthan duirng the month of January.
If we talk specifically about West Rajasthan, the monthly average rainfall recorded here for January is 3 mm. Its two important places such as Jaisalmer records monthly average of 2.6 mm rainfall while Barmer records 1.2 mm of rains. In contrary to this, places located on East Rajasthan such as Jaipur records 7 mm average rainfall, Jodhpur 4 mm, Bikaner 5.5 mm and Kota 6 mm. It is clearly visible from above data that rains increase as we move from West to East Rajasthan.
Now let’s find out what is the reason behind this!
During winters, the Western Disturbances mostly affect hills of the country while these affect partly over the plains. Their induced Cyclonic Circulations affect plains and some parts of Rajasthan. However, these remain confined only to North and Northeast Rajasthan. There are rare occasions when these extend up to Southeast Rajasthan, while these remain completely absent from West Rajasthan. This is the major reason why West Rajasthan remains devoid of any significant rains during winters.
In contrary to this, West Rajasthan performs excellent in terms of recording low minimums. There are times when these dip down to even single digits. As per record, mercury dipped to 1℃ way back on January 19 in 2015. However, maximums here stay in 20s only.
Now let’s do a comparative study between two important places of West Rajasthan I.e. Jaisalmer and Barmer-
Jaisalmer: Between 2001 and 2019, for 11 years it recorded nil rainfall during the month of January. In other years too, rains were recorded in single digits only and that too below 5 mm. However, this year January has seen 5 in total rainy days for Jaisalmer. For the three consecutive days I.e. January 11, 12 and 13 light rains touched this city. Then again on January 21 and today on January 22, rains have become a major part of this city. According to data, last 24 hours have recorded 8 mm of rainfall. In total if we say, Jaisalmer has recorded 16 mm of rains during January. Most importantly rains here have tried to nail all time record of 16.2 mm that was noted down way back in 1971.
Barmer: Between 2001 and 2019, there were 14 occasions, when Barmer recorded nil rainfall. The only good rainfall of 66.8 mm was recorded way back in 1945, when winter rain became a regular affair for this city. Now, in this month, the city has witnessed two rainy spells I.e. first on January 13, when it recorded 3 mm of rainfall and second is today on January 22,when it has recorded 2 mm of rainfall. In total 5 mm of rainfall has been recorded for this month. Also, this a very good score particularly for the city which records almost nil rains in January.
If we talk about minimums, then both the cities show a large variation in minimums. On one day, when these are reported around 1℃, situation recovers very quickly and other day these reach up to 6℃ to 7℃.
At present, looking at the current scenario, we can say that rains are not yet done with Jaisalmer and Barmer and we predict more rains in future I.e. on January 24. Thereafter, weather will go a little dry with a drop in temperatures. Moreover, cold winds from north direction will make an entry over the cities.
Image Credits – Wikipedia
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather