IMD’s Climate Summary for Winter 2021

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has released the monthly climate summary on March 2, 2021. As per the IMD Report, India has recorded its second warmest winter during the months of January and February 2021 after the year 1901.

Highlights

The IMD has stated that, minimum temperature recorded in past two months was 15.39 degrees Celsius as opposed to normal temperature of 14.59 degrees Celsius while the maximum period for the same period was 27.47 degrees Celsius. It also states that, winter of 2016 have the record for warmest ever winter in India. As per IMD, 2021 winter was the third warmest after 2016 and 2009 winters in terms of mean temperature.

Why 2021 winter was warmer?

In the winter season, easterly winds were dominant which kept the minimum temperatures above normal. Most of the western disturbances passed along the extreme northern regions such as Jammu and Kashmir. Thus, it failed to bring cold weather in the northern plains. Some of the cold winds got obstructed by the moisture-laden easterlies. These factors contributed to the warm winter this year. Further, less than five cold wave events were developed in the north India region this winter season. This resulted into prolonged fog conditions.

Conditions in Southern India

The southern states namely, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry experienced an extremely wet January in 2021. The rainfall departure for the southern peninsula during the winter season is 246 per cent more than the normal. This resulted an increase in the mean temperature figures of India. The IMD report further states that, South Peninsular India recorded the fourth wettest winter season in which the rainfall was recorded as 56.1 mm both in January and February.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2021