New Year set for a cold, wet start as MeT predicts rain, snow

The Meteorological Department has predicted a cold and wet start to New Year 2025 with the possibility of rain and snow along with dense fog in parts of northwest India over the next few days. This is an extension of the prevailing wet spell that has turned the severe rain deficit in the region into a massive surplus.

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“Cold wave conditions are likely to commence in parts of northwest India from December 30,” said a bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday. Dense to very dense fog over this region was expected over the next 2-3 days, the bulletin added.

There is a western disturbance in middle tropospheric westerlies, roughly over west Pakistan and adjoining Iran. “It is very likely to cause light isolated to scattered rainfall and snowfall over the western Himalayan region from January 1 to 4,” the IMD said. A fresh western disturbance in quick succession was likely to affect northwest India from January 6, the IMD further said. Western disturbances are extratropical storms that originate in the Mediterranean region, bringing sudden winter rain to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Over the past 24 hours, light to moderate rainfall was experienced at most places in Punjab with thunderstorm, hailstorm and dense fog being reported from a few areas. With a downpour of 51.7 mm during this period, SBS Nagar was the wettest district in the state, followed by Hoshiarpur (40.5 mm) and Gurdaspur (35.7 mm).

Winter rains, which were deficient in Punjab by as much as 96 per cent till a few days ago, are now massively surplus by 149 per cent due to the widespread rain experienced in many parts of the state over the past few days.

From December 1 to 29, Punjab received 24.7 mm rainfall compared to the long-period average of 9.9 mm for that period, according to the IMD data. Post-monsoon seasonal rainfall since October 1 has also turned surplus by 17 per cent. The minimum temperature prevailing in Punjab over the past 24 hours ranged from 5.8°C at Bathinda to 13.4°C at Mohali, which was above normal at a few places by up to 6.9°C, the IMD data revealed.

The weatherman has predicted a fall in minimum temperature in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi by 3-4°C over the next three days and no significant change over the subsequent few days. Dense fog and cold wave conditions over some places have also been predicted till January 3.