Monday, January 10, 2011

Ground frost would occur over isolated pockets of north Rajasthan and north Madhya Pradesh till tonight

Coming up !! Brief westerly comfort for frigid north India

The arrival of a western disturbance early this week and its limited warming impact is about the only piece of good news for people battling near-frigid conditions in north and northwest India.
The westerly system would affect western Himalayan region from Tuesday and adjoining plains of northwest India from Thursday, an outlook by India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday.

MINIMUM MERCURY
Minimum and maximum temperatures may increase by 2-3 deg Celsius as rising motion of air in front the system sets up convection and draw up clouds over northwest, central and east India in phases.
In this manner, fog to dense fog conditions over Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan may decrease in intensity and duration.
The same effect may later unfold for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, sub-Himalayan West Bengal and north Madhya Pradesh in tandem with the easterly movement of the western disturbance.

COLD REAR
It is the rear end of the westerly system that provokes subsidence of air, unleashing a blast of cold to severe cold arctic air blowing into the plains of northwest India. The IMD warned that the emerging conditions could set up ground frost over isolated pockets of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, north Rajasthan, Bihar, north Madhya Pradesh and north Chhattisgarh on Monday and Tuesday nights.
This might adversely impact the health of standing crops, with an agro-met advisory bulletin issued by the IMD telling farmers to apply light and frequent irrigation to the standing crops.
They might as well arrange for smoking around the field to prevent the crops from cold or frost injury.

RABI CROP
The minimum temperature has been ranging between 2 and 5 deg Celsius over Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan, west Uttar Pradesh and north Madhya Pradesh. This was 6-8 deg Celsius over south Rajasthan, rest of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, interior Orissa, Jharkhand and parts of Bihar. But fairly widespread rain or snowfall has been reported from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand during the past few days. This is considered beneficial for the rabi crops in these regions.
On the other hand, cloudy conditions in madhya Maharashtra have triggered further infestation of thrips and blight in the standing onion crop, the IMD report said.
Incidence of snow and rainfall has been indicated for the hilly regions and parts of the plains in Haryana, Punjab and west Uttar Pradesh during mid-week this week. Otherwise cold to severe cold conditions could persist over north, northwest east and northeast India, especially during January 17 to 25, according to a forecast outlook from the US National Centres for Environmental Prediction.
It is likely that parts of west India (Gujarat included) and southern parts of Central and adjoining north peninsular India will benefit from a warming effect as warmer winds from the Bay of Bengal during this week.
A severe cold event is simultaneously forecast to sit right over the Himalayas and bring adjoining foothills and plains under its chilling influence.

DRY IN SOUTH
As for the south, the unfolding week is likely to prove dry, even as a wet session settles over southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining Sri Lanka the most.
Coastal areas of southern Tamil Nadu might just get some rain showers, although some forecasts indicate occasional events venturing north along the southwest coast from the weekend.
Chennai - Today had a mild day with some low clouds around... low temp was 22.2 deg C (6:31am)
Cold Weather Kills 13 More People In North India ... http://ow.ly/3B3l1
COLA-GFS predicts that the present UAC over S-W Bay may concentrate into a Marked LOW near S-E Srilanka, 14-Jan .. http://ow.ly/i/771R
A weak western disturbance will affect W.Kashmir from 11-Jan.. and Heavy snow/rain for Kashmir and Himachal predicted on 13,14-Jan
Widespread rain for Srilanka and Isolated rain for S-E Tamilnadu will persist till 15-Jan... http://ow.ly/i/771m
4pm, Heavy cloud formations still linger over S-W Bay due to the ever present UAC in that zone ... http://ow.ly/i/7716
NO end for S-W Bay UAC till 15-Jan... it was supposed to die around 11-Jan... but NO sign of it now ... http://ow.ly/i/7703