India braces for bitter winter in January; Northwest to see below normal rainfall

In recent years, ⁠maximum and minimum temperatures from January to March ⁠have been above normal, adversely affecting yields of winter ‌crops.

New Delhi: An area close to Bengaluru in south interior Karnataka is the only spot in peninsular India that may experience additional cold wave days in January, according to the India Meteorological Department that has predicted such extra cold-wave days for large areas across central India.

IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said the area near Bengaluru, as shown in the cold wave outlook for January 2026, might be an “isolated” case in which markedly below normal temperature for a few additional days could occur in parts of south interior Karnataka.

Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, east Uttar Pradesh and adjoining areas of Bihar will see 1-3 additional cold wave days this month. These are above the number of average cold wave days that these regions are expected to experience in the normal course of time.

Monthly maximum and minimum temperature will remain “below normal” in most parts of the country. For the next few days, cold wave conditions are likely in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Rajasthan.

The January to March average rainfall for north west India would be “below normal” with the region likely to receive less than 86% of average rainfall. Most parts of peninsular and northeastern India will also face below normal rain.

Mohapatra said declining winter rains in north-west India is due to a trend of a lesser number of Western Disturbances – a storm originating in the Mediterranean sea – influencing the weather in the north west.

“Though 5-7 WDs are formed every month, either they are weak or pass over India quickly without impacting the weather much. The WD-induced rain and snowfall activities are decreasing,” he said.

Even in January, Uttarakhand, Punjab, half of Himachal Pradesh, large tracts of Uttar Pradesh and half of Ladakh will get poor rainfall. But this year fog conditions were more compared to last year.

An analysis of last year’s weather trends showed over 2,700 Indians died due to extreme weather events, of which nearly 48% were killed by lightning, mostly in eastern states. Another 50% were victims of floods and heavy rain.

In Bihar and Odisha, all deaths were by the lightning whereas an overwhelming majority of extreme weather victims in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand were struck by thunderstorms.

Mohapatra said lightning deaths were common in eastern India because of the Nor’wester (Kalboisakhi) but the number of such deaths were not increasing.