Delhi and the NCR region have witnessed cold wave conditions during third week of December that too, for just about 3 to 4 days. Since then, temperatures of Delhi remained near normal or slightly below normal. Many parts of Rajasthan and isolated pockets of Haryana witnessed freezing temperatures during that period. The reason for this short cold wave period can be attributed to successive western disturbances in last 10 days of December. Western disturbances were not able to give any rain activities over Northern plains, but they helped in obstructing northwesterly cold winds.
Cold wave to severe cold wave is a common phenomenon during the second half and first half of January. A series of Western disturbances commenced from January 1st and continued until January 10. Wind direction remained easterly to Southeasterly and there was ample cloud cover over Northwest and parts of Central India.
These weather parameters kept the minimums above normal over Northwest India. The short window between January 10 and 15 was not enough to drop the minimums of Northern Plains as dense fog persisted during this period. This was responsible for restricting the temperatures to drop significantly.
Three successive Western disturbances are expected to approach Western Himalayas are between January 16 and 21st. Scattered rain and snow is possible over Western Himalayas during this period. And rain activities are possible over Northwest and Central India between January 20 and 22nd. Therefore, minimums of Northwest India expected to increase once again. In a nutshell we can say that chances of cold wave conditions over north West and Central part of the country are very less during January 2022.
