Most parts of northwest, central, northeast, areas along the Himalayan foothills and south will experience normal to above normal minimum temperatures during the winter season between December and February,” said Mrutyunjay Mohaparta, director general of IMD.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Wednesday said the minimum temperatures during the upcoming winter season over most regions of the country will be normal or warmer than normal
On Wednesday, the Seasonal Outlook for winter temperatures (December 2021-Debruary 22) was also launched by Mrutyunjay Mohaparta, director general of IMD.
“Most parts of northwest, central, northeast, areas along the Himalayan foothills and south will experience normal to above normal minimum temperatures during the winter season between December and February,” said Mohapatra.
However, cold winter conditions will prevail over some of the core coldwave zones. These include interior Maharashtra, north Karnataka and Telangana.
This year, the number of coldwave events and days over Jammu, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be lesser than usual although cold day conditions are likely over these regions,” added Mophapatra
Due to clouding and associated rainfall, many areas, including the northeast and southern India regions, the likely maximum temperatures during December to February will remain below normal, indicating cold day conditions,” said D Sivanand Pai, head, Climate Research and Services, IMD, Pune.
With winter officially commencing from Wednesday, the minimum temperatures during the next two weeks will show a marked drop over most parts of the country, except south interior Karnataka and the northeast regions of India.
On the ongoing northeast monsoon battering southern India, the IMD said it was a record-breaking wet November for southern peninsular India. The southern states received 316.2 mm rainfall, which was 169 per cent above the Long Period Average (LPA).
This century’s wettest November was mainly due to strong and moist easterly winds and five consecutive low-pressure systems that dumped large amounts of rainfall mainly over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and coastal Andhra Pradesh.
In December, too, the northeast monsoon will continue to remain active and bring more rains over southern peninsular India, Mohapatra said.
The number of very heavy rain (115.6mm to 204.5mm) events recorded in November were 26 in 2017, 36 in 2018, 24 in 2019, 98 in 2020 and 168 in 2021. Similarly, the number of extremely heavy rain (more than 204.4mm in 24-hours) too spiked between 2017 and 2021 — 1 in 2017 , four in 2018 , none in 2019 , 11 each in 2020 and 2021.