The wheels of trains stopped, planes could not take off on time, school holidays became longer and people were confined to their homes. This situation has arisen due to the bitter cold that is engulfing North India.
Many states including Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh were in the grip of winter since the end of December. Now India Meteorological Department i.e. IMD has also revealed the reason for the extreme cold.
The minimum temperature had dropped below 4 degrees Celsius at many places including Delhi in the northwest. At the same time, due to fog, many states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh also faced zero visibility.
IMD is giving three reasons for this. These include the lack of active western disturbances over northwest India, El Nino conditions and the jet stream.
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The country faced western disturbances twice, once in December and once in January. However, it is being said that their impact was limited to Gujarat, Northern Maharashtra, Eastern Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Also, less than normal rainfall in the Himalayan region further added to the cold. There was a huge reduction in rain and snowfall here, due to which the cold wave started hitting more strongly.
Generally, five to seven western disturbances occur in North-West India in December and January, which provide relief from the severe cold. This was not seen in this cold season.
El Nino conditions can also be considered as one of the reasons for less western disturbances. Now due to this, a reduction in cold wave days has also been seen in North-West India.
Jet stream winds running at a speed of 250 km to 320 km per hour have also added to the cold of North India.
Due to this, the duration of cold wave has also increased here. There are chances that the jet stream may continue for the next few days.