Minimum temperatures over north-west India gradually increasing over years
Reportedly it is almost the end of december, but minimum temperatures across large parts of Northwest india are still a few degrees above-normal. Even though a thick blanket of fog has descended on the region, the winters are ‘mild’ and far from what they normally used to be at this time of the year. The fog is likely to get denser wednesday onwards starting from punjab, Uttar Pradesh and stretching up to extreme north madhya pradesh till december 31. The visibility in some parts of punjab has dropped to 0 metres during night, and less than 50 metres at indira gandhi International airport in Delhi.But the night temperatures over north-western states are still settling around 7-10°C and hovering around 11-12°C in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha and odisha higher than usual. The minimum temperatures are at least 2-3°C above-normal over several parts of punjab, delhi, West Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal, gujarat as well as northeast india, according to india Meteorological Department (IMD). delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 7.8℃ on wednesday, a degree above-normal, while it touched 22℃ during the day. The lowest it has recorded this month is 4.9℃.Moreover meteorologists attribute the absence of a chilly weather to the absence of strong western disturbances this month. These extra-tropical storms originate from the Mediterranean sea in the west, hit the western Himalayan region and are responsible for most of the rainfall over North india during winter. The IMD has already predicted above-normal minimum temperatures over most parts of india from december to february this season. It had also stated that the occurrence of cold waves is also expected to be below-normal.