Wet spell forecast for South on New Year eve

Organised rains, long overdue over extreme south peninsula, may be on the way during the week ending Friday next (December 30).

This would happen as a fresh easterly wave drifts in across the Bay of Bengal and starts affecting the region from Saturday, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) outlook said.

It is likely that the rains may spill into the New Year as well, according to an extended outlook of the US National Centres for Environmental Prediction.

An IMD outlook for the next two days said that rain or thundershowers would break out at a few places over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and south Tamil Nadu and at one or two places over the rest of extreme south peninsular India.

An Insat imagery on Friday afternoon located convective clouds rising over parts of south Tamil Nadu, south and adjoining west central Bay of Bengal, south Andaman Sea and the Comorin area.

An existing trough in the easterlies had shifted bearing west to over the Comorin area and Lakshadweep.

ISOLATED RAINS

Thundershowers have been reported at a few places over Andaman and Nicobar Islands and at one or two places over Lakshadweep during the 24 hours ending Friday morning. Meanwhile, dense fog to cold wave conditions persisted over respectively over east and north-west India during this period.

Fog to dense fog hung heavy over many parts of east Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and sub-Himalayan West Bengal while it was ‘shallow' over Haryana, Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh. Cold wave conditions prevailed over parts of Punjab, Haryana, east Uttar Pradesh and sub-Himalayan West Bengal and isolated pockets of north Rajasthan.

COLD WAVE

Minimum temperatures fell by 2 to 3 deg Celsius over some parts of north Rajasthan and Haryana.

Dense to very dense fog would continue to prevail over parts of east Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and sub-Himalayan West Bengal for two more days. Shallow fog has been forecast for pockets of Haryana, Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh during the morning hours during next 24 hours and no fog later. Cold day conditions would continue to prevail over some parts of Bihar and isolated pockets of east Uttar Pradesh during next 24 hours and abate thereafter.