North India– Successive cyclones in the Bay of Bengal this winter season isn’t allowing the Western Disturbance in the hills of North India to live up to its strength, which is why the winter chill is yet to be felt. The only change in the weather of North India will be observed in the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, in terms of isolated rain and snow. Srinagar would therefore continue to observe sub-zero temperatures. However, due to the passing Western Disturbances, fog will be the main feature in the plains this week. Parts of Amritsar could observe dense fog and poor visibility levels. Delhi could also experience shallow fog in pockets. Day and night temperatures in the northern plains will maintain between 25 degrees and 10 degrees respectively.
East and Northeast India– For the initial first two days of the week the weather in East and Northeast India will be cloudy because of Cyclone Madi in the Bay of Bengal. Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and West Bengal are all expected to witness cloudy skies and a drop in the mercury levels. The day temperatures will observe a drop of about 1 to 2 degrees while the night temperatures will rise by a couple of notches. Temperatures will start getting back to normal as the cloud cover disappears from Wednesday onwards. Dense fog this week will be observed in pockets of Varanasi, Patna and Lucknow which could lead to some flight delays in the early morning hours.
Central India–In Central India, parts of Madhya Pradesh are as cold as North India, with minimums maintaining between 9⁰C and 10⁰C. This is primarily because of the cold northwesterly winds from the hills of North India reaching Central India. Maximums too will maintain 1 to 2 degrees below normal in the region. Parts of Marathwada and Vidharbha will also record minimums well below normal, between 10⁰C to 12⁰C. The drop in temperatures will only be observed till the first half of week. Gujarat will however, observe fair weather with slightly warm days at around 32⁰C.
South India– In view of Cyclone Madi, cloudy to overcast skies will be observed in most parts along the east coast of peninsular India. In the first half of the week, isolated rain is expected at Andhra coast and north coastal Tamil Nadu. Needless to say, temperatures along the east coast will maintain below the normal average due to clouding and rain from Cyclone Madi. On the other hand, the west coast of peninsular India could observe warmer temperatures and sunny skies throughout the week. Maximums in coastal stations of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra including Mumbai will settle between 32 to 35 degrees.
Photo by Ritika Acharya.