IMD Issues Health Advisory As Severe Cold Conditions Prevail
The India Meteorological Department has issued a health advisory urging people to take precautions as severe cold conditions prevailed in north India.
The IMD warned that the prevailing dense fog contained particulate matter and other pollutants that may impact the functionality of the lungs, cause eye irritation and respiratory problems with the symptoms of wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath, and deteriorate asthma, bronchitis, and other lung- health problems, irritating the membranes of the eye and causing various infections leading to redness or swelling of the eye.
According to the IMD, severe weather conditions are likely to continue over some parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan during the next 2 days, with minimum temperatures falling below 10 °C and maximum temperatures departing from normal by -4.5°C to -6.5 °C and decreasing thereafter.
The minimum temperatures are in the range of 4 to 8°C over most parts of Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh, West Uttar Pradesh, and north Rajasthan, and in the range of 9 to 12°C over Delhi, East Uttar Pradesh, north Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and south Rajasthan. Moreover, the maximum temperatures vary from 10°C to 16 °C in different parts of north India.
Fog conditions observed (at 0830 hours IST of today): Very Dense fog observed in isolated pockets over Jammu Division, East UP & East Rajasthan; Dense Fog in some parts of Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi & West UP; in isolated pockets over West Rajasthan, MP, 1/5 pic.twitter.com/9D1YAHYAeE
— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) January 5, 2024
Apart from it, a fresh spell of western disturbance will lay over the higher altitudes of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand in the next two days, causing the season’s heavy snowfall following a moderate rainfall in the northern plains of India.
Another cyclonic circulation existed over Haryana, and an anti-cyclonic circulation over Odisha will trigger instable weather conditions such as thunderstorms, lightning, rainfall, and hailstorms over north Madhya Pradesh, south Bihar, north Chhattisgarh, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Vidarbha in the next two days.
In the two-week forecasts, the IMD stressed below-normal rainfall activity over all the homogenous regions of India. A fresh spell of rainfall with isolated heavy rainfall is likely over extreme south peninsular India during the next 4–5 days.
