Current cold spell is the last one this winter

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 25

Well, the good news is that when US President Barack Obama is seated as the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations at the Rajpath tomorrow, the fog and the rain are likely to cooperate and not play spoilsport.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted dense fog at isolated places over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh, which meteorologists say, will clear up by the time the parade begins.

The other good news is that the ongoing cold spell is almost the last one for the season.

According to Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist of a private weather forecasting agency, people in the northwest can start looking forward to “some pleasant times from January-end onwards, which will continue for all of February”.

The winter has overstayed its stay this season but it also kicked in late, only in the second week of December.

Though a fresh Western Disturbance (WD), the second one for this week, is currently passing through North India, it is not very strong and Palawat says its effect will be confined only to the higher reaches of the region.