The ongoing year-end festive and holiday period has been a cold one for many parts of India, especially the northern and northwestern states, which have been reeling under cold days and cold waves since Christmas. And now, this frigid weather will be joined by wet and foggy conditions across the country’s northernmost regions.
As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), isolated to scattered rainfall and snowfall of light intensity is likely across the Western Himalayan Region — the mountainous territories of Jammu-Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand — on Thursday and Friday, December 29-30.
These wet and snowy conditions will be produced by a fresh western disturbance which currently runs as a trough in middle tropospheric westerlies.
Such western disturbances are essentially low-pressure systems that originate over the Mediterranean Sea, and are then pushed towards India by high-altitude westerly winds. Along the way, they gather moisture from various sources and then dump it over North and even Northeast India.
In fact, parts of Northeast India will also be in for similar conditions, with the IMD predicting isolated to scattered light rain and snow over the region for the next 24 hours.
And apart from the precipitation, foggy conditions shall also blanket both these regions during this forecast period.
The IMD has forecast dense to very dense fog in isolated pockets of Uttarakhand and dense fog in isolated parts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim during the next 24 hours.
Moreover, dense fog is also expected to blanket Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on Thursday and Friday, Dec 29-30.
Such foggy weather can seriously affect visibility, and therefore, heading outdoors amid such conditions should be avoided unless necessary. When out, driving very slowly, using low-beam headlights and honking at appropriate times is recommended.
By TWC