Since the last few years, we have seen that every successive year has turned out be warmer than the previous one. Earlier, 2015 was the warmest year, which was then followed by 2016 that was the even hotter and was the warmest year on record.
Now, 2017 is also following the trend. In fact, January 2017 was warmest since 1901. February started on a similar note, wherein temperatures across many parts of the country remained above normal for most parts of the month. Moreover, mercury has already surpassed 40-degree mark at few places such as Bhira and Malegaon in Maharashtra.
The heat of the rising mercury could also be felt up to the West Coast. Places like Mumbai and Ratnagiri saw day temperatures scaling up to 39°C and above. These temperatures amounted to heatwave-like conditions, making weather unbearable for coastal stations.
Moving ahead, we do not expect any significant changes in the weather pattern and it will continue to become hotter and hotter. As per Skymet Weather’s long range models, the approaching summer season is going to be extremely hotter.
Reason behind the abnormally warmer weather
Winters 2017 has been abnormally warm and this can be attributed to extremely less winter rains which normally occurs during December to February over northwestern plains of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi-NCR, North Rajasthan and West Uttar Pradesh.
In the absence of winter rains, levels of humidity also remained low and in turn dense fog that is peculiar phenomena of this part of the year also remained absent. All these factors coupled together kept the day temperatures high. Moreover, continuous approach of Western Disturbances blocked the flow of icy cold northwesterly winds, leading to further rise in mercury.
Further, as we gradually progress towards pre-Monsoon season, weather models are not indicating of much pre-Monsoon activities over Northwest India that include rain and thundershowers, dust storm or hail storm.
Due to decrease in pre-monsoon activities, weather is likely to remain dry and sky will be clear. We expect temperatures to remain above normal throughout the season, leading to frequent heatwave conditions across several parts of the country.
Heatwave prone areas include Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana.
Meanwhile, the core heatwave region includes Telangana, Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Marathwada, Madhya Maharashtra and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra.
Image credit: Indian Express
Any information taken from here should be credited to skymetweather.com
