National weather forecast and temperatures: Saturday, January 25 

Mainly dry weather is likely to prevail over most parts of the country except the hills of North-West India and the North-Eastern States, where isolated to scattered rain is likely till tomorrow (Sunday). Surface winds with speeds ranging from 5 to 15 km/hr are likely to blow over the plains of North India till tonight (Saturday), ruling out dense fog. But they may weaken from tomorrow, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.  

Minimum (night) temperatures may fall by 2  to 3 degree Celsius over East India and no significant change in temperatures is forecast over the rest of the country during the next two to three days. New Delhi was hazy at 18 deg Celsius at 11 am this (Saturday) morning. Fog is forecast tomorrow (Sunday) morning, becoming sunny in the afternoon. Shallow to moderate fog in the morning hours is forecast for Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar, Assam and Meghalaya during the next three days and over Odisha today and tomorrow, the IMD said.  

Fresh western disturbance on way

The background for the emerging weather conditions over the North and East of the country is provided by the arrival of a fresh and active western disturbance into North-West India from tomorrow (Sunday) night. It is expected to cause fairly widespread to widespread rain/snow over the hills of the region with isolated heavy rain/snow over Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Western disturbances, which originate from the Mediterranean/Caspian Sea, causing rainfall over Punjab or Uttar Pradesh, seem to come in succession at intervals of two to five days while they last. At other times, it is usual for periods of one to two weeks to be continuously free from such western disturbances in any month.

Roughly on one half of the occasions, the activity of western disturbances is confined to Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana, while during the remaining spells the weather

extends to the South also. On an average there are six to seven disturbances per month moving across India during the winter, and creating associated weather (rain/snow in the hills, thundershowers in the plains). 

On Tuesday and Wednesday (January 28 and 29), the active western disturbance will cause isolated to scattered rain/thunderstorms and scattered to fairly widespread rain/thunderstorms may wade into the adjoining plains of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and  Uttar Pradesh, while it would be isolated to scattered over Rajasthan, North Madhya Pradesh and East India. Thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and hail may visit isolated places over the rest of the plains on Monday and Tuesday. 

South India stays warmer 

Meanwhile, the southern parts of the country continued to see day temperatures shoot beyond the January normal by 3 to 5 degree Celsius, mainly over Kerala and Karnataka. Yesterday (Friday), the day's maximum of 37.6 degree Celsius was recorded at Karwar (Coastal Karnataka). Early outlook by global models have suggested that South India will warm up faster than the North this summer. On Friday, the lowest minimum temperature in the plains of the country, of 3.2 deg Celsius, was recorded at Amritsar and Churu (West Rajasthan). Chennai was hazy at 29 degree Celsius at 11.45 am this (Saturday) morning; Mumbai partly cloudy at a much higher 32 degree Celsius; and Bengaluru, at 26 degree Celsius, under a mix of sun and clouds. 

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