Another cold wave expected in North India from January 15, says weather department

The India Meteorological Department on Thursday said that parts of North West India are likely to experience a cold wave again between January 15 and January 16, ANI reported.

“Currently, temperatures have increased due to a western disturbance in North West India,” said Soma Sen Roy, a scientist at the India Meteorological Department.

Extratropical storms which originate in the Mediterranean region and bring sudden winter rain to the north-western parts of the Indian sub-continent are known as western disturbances.

In a forecast bulletin released on Thursday, the weather department predicted cold wave to severe cold wave conditions over some parts of North Rajasthan and cold wave conditions in isolated pockets of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh between January 15 and January 17.

The weather department declares a cold wave in the plains when the minimum temperature is less than 4 degrees Celsius.

Over the last week, some areas of Delhi have recorded temperatures as low as 2.2 degrees Celsius. Monday was the fifth consecutive day that Delhi’s minimum temperature was lower than that of most places in the hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

-4 degrees Celsius forecast

Meanwhile, a weather expert said on Wednesday that temperatures in the plains of North India could drop to a minimum of -4 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius.

Navdeep Dahiya, the founder of an online weather platform called Live Weather of India, wrote in a tweet thread: “Never seen temperature ensemble going this low in a prediction model so far in my career.”

Severe cold conditions are expected between January 14 and January 19, he predicted, adding that the chill is likely to be at its peak from January 16 to January 18.

The Delhi government’s Directorate of Education has asked all private schools to remain closed till January 15 in view of the cold wave.

The drop in temperature and dense fog also leads to chaos at airports and railway stations. A senior India Meteorological Department official told PTI on Tuesday that Delhi has seen around 50 hours of dense fog in January so far – the highest since 2019.