Cold wave conditions will continue to prevail over north India, particularly in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, north-west Rajasthan, north-east Madhya Pradesh and north Chhattisgarh. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that the minimum temperature could drop on Thursday resulting in a cold wave in the National Capital Region (NCR).
In Delhi and NCR, cold wave condition is set to continue for two-three days, according to prediction and after that the minimum temperature could increase by 3 to 4 degrees over the weekend.
It has been seen that day and night temperatures start increasing after Makar Sankranti that marks the beginning of the arrival of Spring as sunshine increases, becoming more direct towards the Northern Hemisphere. Moreover, if there is a Western Disturbance, clouds block the increasing heat from escaping from the atmosphere thus raising the night temperatures as well. However, this has not happened as yet.
Delhi witnessed a cold day as the minimum was recorded at 4.5 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal, while the maximum temperature settled at 21.3 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal.
The IMD said the minimum temperature would start rising again in Delhi and NCR because of an approaching western disturbance in Delhi and NCR in a week. “The night temperature could touch 10 degrees over the weekend in Delhi,” said an IMD official. The weather department has also predicted light to very light rainfall on January 20 and 21.
According to a latest report of Climate Research and Services of the IMD, as many as 1,428 people died due to extreme weather events in 2018 with heavy rain and subsequent flooding, dust storms, thunderstorms and lightning claiming half the total number of toll.
The IMD said the annual mean temperature during 1901-2018 showed an increasing trend of 0.60C /100 years with significant increasing trend in maximum temperature (1.00C/100 years), and relatively lower increasing trend (0.20C/100 years) in minimum temperature.
The report said 2018 was the warmest year, with temperature for the country +0.41 0C above the 1981-2010 average, thus making 2018 the sixth warmest year on record since 1901. Similarly, 11 out of 15 warmest years were during the recent past 15 years between 2004 and 2018.
“The annual rainfall of 2018 over the country as a whole was 85 per cent of Long Period Average (LPA) value for the period 1951-2000.
The 2018 northeast monsoon season (October-December) rainfall over the country as a whole was substantially below normal (56 per cent of LPA). This was the 6th lowest since 1901,” it said.
“The country’s average monthly temperatures were warmer than the normal during all the months of the year (except December) with mean temperatures exceeding the normal by around 10 degrees Celsius during the two months (Feb, 0.930C; March, 0.960C).
The report added that flood and heavy rain related incidents reportedly claimed over 800 lives from different parts of the country, including northern, northeastern, central and peninsular parts during pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons.
Uttar Pradesh saw 158 deaths due to flood and heavy rainfall, 166 deaths due to thunderstorm, lightning (39 deaths), dust storm (92 deaths) and cold wave took 135 lives.
According to the IMD, India has experienced 167 instances of cold waves, the highest in 13 years, across different stations in December last year. In 2017, December saw just 30 such instances.
In the past two decades, only 2005 had more reported instances of December cold waves at 177. During 2018, six cyclonic storms formed over the north Indian Ocean. Out of these six systems, three forming over the Arabian Sea during the pre-monsoon season and one during the post monsoon season, did not have landfall over the Indian region.
