Winter is coming, and it will apparently be stark! Yes, according to the ongoing observations by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), a cooler than typical winter season could be on these cards this year. The Winter season in India marks a significant drop in temperatures, hefty haze, and cold waves, especially during the months of December and January. This time it is required to be overwhelmed by continuous and intense episodes of cold waves in the nation.
The primary factor behind the stark winter forecast is the predominant powerless La Niña over the distant Pacific Ocean since August 2020. IMD uncovered the expectation in its El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) release for October.
IMD boss M Mohapatra in an online class said, “We associate La Niña years with a higher recurrence of intense cyclones over the Bay of Bengal and colder winters. It may, numerous different factors impact the winter. A forecast will be announced in November for the winter periods. However, in the event that we consider just the effect of La Niña, at that point that is certainly connected to colder winters.”
La Niña is an aspect of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. This intermittent climate marvel affects worldwide climate patterns. This system creates cooler sea temperature across the eastern and focal Pacific Ocean. Affected by La Niña conditions, the strong winds, for the most part, swing from heated surface water of South America within Indonesia. As soon as the warm water movements, the virus water rises to the surface. This change impacts the climate and wind patterns in the surrounding continents.
The ENSO has a significant effect on precipitation, temperature, and wind patterns across the world. The El Niño indicates hotter conditions over the Pacific, while the La Niña phase of ENSO suggests cold conditions. Both the systems last somewhere in the range of 9 and 12 months. La Niña in Spanish means the young lady, while El Niño refers to a young man. In India, the El Niño is linked with dehydration or frail monsoon season. At the same time, La Niña is responsible for strong monsoon winds, better than expected rains and colder winters.
Last year, parts of Delhi and abutting north India experienced one of the coldest winter seasons on record in the century. The details of North and Northwest India are mostly inclined to cold waves conditions each year. Indeed, even the most extreme temperatures of the day tumbled to underneath 10°C in the public capital Delhi during the last seven day stretch of December in 2019—lowest since 1901.
Throughout the last fortnight, the COVID-19 pandemic has started to slow down, as shown by the steadily dropping new case numbers across India. Be that as it may, as the usual seasonal viruses stay more dynamic during winters, experts have been cautioning not to allow the guards to down and follow all the necessary precautions to evade a second rush of the novel coronavirus.