M A I N   N E W S

Some relief likely on chill front
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 1
There is some good news on the weather front on the first day of 2010. The Indian Meteorological Department today said cold wave conditions, which have been prevailing over plains of northwest India, including Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, in the past one week are likely to abate from January 3.

IMD Director SC Bhan says there will be a rise in minimum temperatures over plains of northwest India during next two days. However, fog or some shallow fog will continue to occur in Punjab, Haryana and west Uttar Pradesh.

Bhan says a feeble western disturbance is expected from the night of January 2 as a result of which cold wave conditions are expected to abate in the region. Some light rains, though not widespread or heavy, are also likely. After the passage of western disturbance on January 5, night temperatures are expected to fall again, he adds.

In fact cold wave conditions showed some signs of relenting in Punjab and Haryana on the New Year day, though mercury still remained several notches below the normal in some places.

While the first part of December 2009 was warmer than usual and second half cooler than normal, in the New Year also the cold wave continued its trip in several parts of Punjab and Haryana with mercury falling several points below the normal. North Indian plains of Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Patiala and Ambala shivered and minimum temperature dropped by up to four degrees below normal. Cold wave conditions continue to prevail over isolated pockets of Punjab and Haryana while the lowest minimum temperature was recorded of -0.6°C at Adampur (Punjab).

Minimum temperatures were below normal by 2-4°C over parts of Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, however, they are above normal by 2-3°C over parts of west Rajasthan, Gujarat and interior peninsula and near normal over rest of the country.

Maximum temperatures are below normal by 4-8°C over parts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and northeastern states and by 2-4°C over Punjab, north Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. They are above normal by 2-3°C over parts of north Rajasthan, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu and near normal over rest of the country.

In Delhi it was a foggy start to the New Year with the city continuing to reel under biting cold even as mercury rose marginally to settle at 6.6 degree Celsius. Incidentally the minimum temperature on January 1, 2009, was 8.5 degree Celsius, while it was 2.6 degree in 2007. The all-time record for minimum temperature was recorded on December 26, 1945, when the mercury dipped to 1.1 degree Celsius.

Although minimum temperature climbed by 0.6 degree from yesterday’s 6 degree Celsius, the winter chill continued due to windy conditions. On Wednesday, Delhi had recorded a minimum of 5.2 degree Celsius, the lowest of the season so far.

Bhan says northwesterly winds blowing over north India and snowfall in higher reaches of Himachal and Kashmir valley resulted in the cold wave condition in the region and the situation is likely to change in the next couple of days with the western disturbance. Meanwhile, cold day conditions will continue in Uttar Pradesh during next couple of days and fog and dense fog will occur over East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim during next two days.

Fog, icy winds dot Chandigarh

With the mercury plummeting further to the lowest of the season at 1.2 degrees Celsius today, the city residents woke up to a thick fog cover and icy cold winds on the first day of the New Year, paralysing normal life as road, rail and air traffic remained disrupted today, with cold wave conditions showing no signs of relenting.

A thick cover of fog reduced the normal visibility range to 200 metres and it stayed that way till 11 am. “The fog persisted today despite the strong winds, which is an unusual condition for the tricity and its neighbouring districts like Ambala, Patiala and Ropar, making it chillier. Visibility conditions were affected till 11 am due to this,” a senior official of the met department said.

The Jet Airways cancelled its to and fro flights from Chandigarh while all the remaining incoming and outgoing flights of Kingfisher, GoAir airlines and Indian Airlines from Chandigarh were also cancelled in the afternoon.

During the past four days, just one flight had taken off from Chandigarh airport, which had remained engulfed under thick fog.