NEW DELHI: According to a forecast by IMD, Northwest India is expected to witness “normal rainfall” in February as coldwave abates.
Normal to below normal minimum temperatures are likely over most parts of the country except northeast and adjoining east India, the weather office said.
“The 2023 February rainfall averaged over northwest India is most likely to be normal (89-112 per cent of LPA). The long-period average (LPA) of rainfall over northwest India during February, based on the data of 1971-2020, is about 65.0 mm. Meanwhile, days with coldwave conditions are expected to be less, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director-General M Mohapatra said.
Below-normal maximum temperatures are likely over most parts of peninsular India, while above-normal maximum temperatures are very likely in most parts of east and northeast India, east-central India and some parts of northwest and west-central India.
Meanwhile, an alert for unseasonal rains is issued in Tamil Nadu.
As of Wednesday evening, IMD said the system was slow moving and may cross Sri Lanka coast by night. The weather agency said the system may continue to bring light to moderate spells over the city and the suburbs and heavy rain over south Tamil Nadu and delta districts on Thursday.
Since 1971, only nine systems formed over the Bay of Bengal but none made it to the land as they all weakened over the sea due to lack of conducive atmospheric and ocean conditions.
Nevertheless, weather systems could still form and intensify over the Bay if the equatorial trough or the inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), which is a band of low pressure with clouds and showers near the equator, moves a few degrees north of the equator. This is for the first time in 51 years for a weather system to have formed in January and crossed a landmass.