North India: Intense wet spell to bring down temp

Most parts of north India on Monday witnessed an intense wet spell, ranging from widespread rains in the plains of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to snowfall in the upper reaches bringing down the night temperature.

“The rainfall and snowfall are expected to continue on Tuesday. In view of the cloudiness and easterly/south-easterly winds, night temperatures are to fall by 2-4 degrees Celsius after January 22,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department.

Due to rainfall, strong winds and cloudy weather, the maximum temperature would be in the range of 20-22 degrees Celsius. The sudden change in the weather pattern was caused by a fresh round of western disturbance – a storm that originates in the Mediterranean but puts its impact on the weather up to South Asia.

People living in the National Capital Region woke up to a cloudy sky and strong winds. In the afternoon, when the sky opened up in parts of the NCR people were caught unaware as most of them were not carrying umbrella or rain-coats.

Large tracts of west Uttar Pradesh including Meerut, Badaun, Bijnor, Etah and Moradabad were hit by the rains in the afternoon. Strong surface winds speed reaching occasionally 20-30 km per hour gusting to 40 kmph are also likely over plains of north-west India in the next two days.

As the wet spell is likely to continue on Tuesday, Dehradun district administration declared holidays for schools and Anganwadi centres. In Uttarakhand, hail storms are likely to occur at Dehradun, Haridwar, Pauri, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts.

For Delhi-NCR, the met office has forecasted cloudy conditions with light to moderate rainfall at most places and isolated thunderstorm accompanied with strong surface winds. The situation is likely to improve from Wednesday.

For those heading to the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), the weather will be mainly cloudy on Tuesday with light rain. Moderate rain and thundershowers with strong surface winds are likely on January 25.