After breaking record of 119 years, the worst is yet to come in north India including the national Capital region.  The India Meteorological Department (IMD) and a private weather forecaster Skymet has predicted rain and snow in north India from January 6-7. The reason is the formation of fresh western disturbance (WD) over Himalaya hills. This is likely to bring cold wave in the north India and also bring down the maximum and minimum temperature. 

Meanwhile, several areas in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir received fresh snowfall on Saturday as the mercury rose marginally across north Indian plains, which had been under the grip of a severe cold spell for over two weeks.  Popular tourist destinations Shimla and

Manali in Himachal Pradesh witnessed the first snowfall of 2020, bringing cheers to tourists and hoteliers alike, while cold conditions persisted in the northern plains despite a marginal increase in temperature. Manali in Kullu district received snowfall on Saturday morning, whereas State Capital Shimla witnessed snowfall in the afternoon. The snowfall brought cheers on the faces of tourists and hoteliers alike.

The IMD said that cold wave conditions is expected to return from January 6-7 in north and northwest India due to western disturbance which will change the wind speed from easterly to northwesterly. “Wind will start from Hills to plain area which bring cold wave conditions,” the IMD said. According to Dr Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist of IMD, weather in India is becoming increasingly difficult to predict, both in the short and the long term due to its tropical area.

According to Skymet, a trail of western disturbance would continue through January as rain and snow would pick up pace from January 6 till January 8 after a brief break till Sunday.

Meanwhile, the IMD has issued a yellow warning for thunderstorm accompanied with hail and lightning at isolated places in plains, low and middle hills of the state on January 6 and 7 in Himachal Pradesh. The MeT department issues colour-coded warnings to alert the public ahead of severe or hazardous weather which has the potential to cause “damage, widespread disruption and/or danger to life”. Yellow is the least dangerous among the warnings.

Rajasthan continued to reel under cold weather conditions with Fatehpur town in Sikar district being the coldest place in the state recording a minimum of 3.4 degrees Celsius. This continuous weather activity on account of back to back weather systems would have an impact over the weather of northwestern plains including Delhi-NCR.

With this, winters in January can be touted to be harsher than December. It is not the night temperatures but the cold days which would be main reason for discomfort,” Skymet said. During the month of January and February, rains are slightly heavier in the northeastern states. Arunachal Pradesh is the largest beneficiary and sees 3-4 times higher rains than other subdivisions. While, the least is for Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura.

The New Year for North India began on a chilly note with several places recording temperatures below 1 degree Celsius. Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar, which nearly touched the 50-degree mark last summer, shivered at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

North India including Delhi recorded the coldest December day in last 119 years since the year 1901 when record-keeping began. Delhi also witnessed cold wave conditions as the minimum temperature settled at 2.4 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal.

Three days ago, the national capital experienced its coldest day in December in 119 years with the day temperature recording 9.4 degrees Celsius. The temperature recorded by the Safdurjung laboratory at 2:30 pm was 9.4 degrees Celsius.