The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday (January 2) has predicted dense to very dense fog conditions over parts of north-west India mainly in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar during the next 4-5 days.

The weather forecast agency also warned of cold wave conditions to continue over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, and north Rajasthan in the next 4-5 days.

Fog is common at this time of the year due to light winds and high moisture near the surface over the Indo-Gangetic plains. The cold winter conditions lead to the condensation of moisture and the formation of tiny liquid droplets that hang in the air.

Due to north-westerly winds from the Himalayas over the plains of northwest India, minimum temperatures are very likely to fall by 2-4 degrees Celsius over northwest and adjoining central India during the next two days, the India Meteorological Department said yesterday.

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Winters have been relatively warm over most parts of north India, except for the latter part of December when regions of the north and northwest India experienced cold waves and dense fog conditions.

The weather office has attributed the missing cold conditions over north India to the lack of strong western disturbances, or extratropical weather systems, that bring rains to the plains and snowfall at higher altitudes.

In December last year, there were seven western disturbances, of which six were feeble over India and only one (December 28 – 30) was strong. The latest extratropical weather system brought the season's first snowfall and rainfall over the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand during the last three days.

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The weather office has forecast 86 percent below normal rainfall of the long period average (LPA) over northwest India between January and March. The LPA of rainfall over northwest India for January-February-March is about 184.3 mm.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)