Several parts of north India are experiencing extreme cold wave, The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast on Wednesday.
Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, as said to be experiencing extreme cold wave conditions, while the rest of the country is bracing for heavy rainfall beginning today.
Heavy rainfall is expected in Arunachal Pradesh and Gangetic West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. East Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra’s Vidarbha are expected to receive isolated and scattered rainfall, respectively.
Several southern states such as Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh will also receive rainfall, according to IMD.
Although the majority of northern Indian states and Gujarat in the country’s west will remain dry, the IMD has forecast light to moderate rainfall over and in the surrounding areas of Kurukshetra in Haryana, Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
The IMD issued an orange alert in Odisha on Tuesday, which is still in effect today. A yellow alert has been issued in Bihar, West Bengal, and Jharkhand until January 13. Notably, an orange alert denotes “extremely bad weather,” whereas a yellow alert denotes “severely bad weather” that has been present for several days. RK Jenamani, an IMD scientist, said on Tuesday that the minimum temperature in Delhi has begun to fall again and could reach 6°C by Saturday. He added that new snowfall in the mountains will cause a drop in the national capital’s minimum temperature, though cold wave conditions are unlikely this week.