The development of various systems are likely to impact weather in different parts of the country over the next few days, drenching the south and northeast in very-heavy rains, and lowering the maximum temperatures in the blistering northern plains by a few degrees.
A western disturbance over central Pakistan promises to bring a little relief, if not rain, to Delhi and other parts of north-west India, which have endured a torturous weekend. On Sunday, some parts of the capital recorded temperatures of over 49 degrees Celsius. It might well have been a record, except that these tracking centres—Najafgarh and Mungeshpur—are new recording stations, in their first year of operation, and have no past records to compare with.
The Indian Meteorological Department said that the western disturbance will bring rain and hail to the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Over the plains of Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, however, there may only be dust and thunderstorms, with a splattering of rain over the next two days. The heatwave conditions, however, are likely to abate with a drop of around three-four degrees Celsius in the maximum temperatures for the present, that is. However, there may still be certain pockets in the plains that will experience heatwave conditions, the weatherman warned.
Weather experts have attributed the excessive heat in the northern plains this year to the absence of western disturbance systems building up this year. These systems, which could develop anywhere between the Mediterranean to Pakistan, move eastwards, bringing rain and storms that are not connected with monsoon precipitation. Western disturbances contribute most of the rain in these parts during the winter months and pre-monsoon months.
In the south, the south-west monsoon is marching ahead, having reached the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. With the strengthening of the southwesterlies, the northeast parts of India—Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh—are likely to witness inclement weather, with extremely heavy rains over the next five days. Meanwhile, a cyclonic circulation over Lakshadweep will bring very heavy rains to Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the same period.
