Thursday, December 30: Parts of North and Northwest India are set to make a rough start to 2022, as intense rainfall and snowfall conditions have been forecast across these regions in the opening week of the near year.
As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a fresh, intense western disturbance (WD) is expected to hit the Western Himalayan Region between January 4 and 7, 2022, and the plains of Northwest India between January 5 to 7, 2022.
Under its influence, fairly widespread rainfall/snowfall are expected across the Western Himalayan Region from January 4 to 7, with the possibility of isolated heavy falls on January 5 and 6 over Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
Furthermore, light/moderate scattered to fairly widespread rains may lash Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, north Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh from January 5 to 7.
The impact of this WD may even stretch down to parts of Central India, as light isolated showers have been forecast over Madhya Pradesh, south Rajasthan and Gujarat on January 6-7.
Until this system hits, however, cold conditions are likely to prevail over the northern half of the country. In fact, between December 30 and January 3, cold waves have been predicted in some pockets of Punjab, Haryana and North Rajasthan.
Dense fog is also likely to blanket parts of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, alongside East and Northeast Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Odisha, Assam and Meghalaya.
Thereafter, a lingering system may also produce isolated to scattered rainfall/snowfall over Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh from January 1-3.
In view of these predictions, the IMD has placed an orange alert over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Rajasthan on December 30, so as to instruct people to “be prepared” for the cold wave and ground frost conditions.
The weather alerts for the heavy rainfall caused by the intense western disturbance will be issued by the start of next week, i.e. January 3.
