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Warmer winter likely this year: IMD
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- Winter is likely to be warmer than average, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting average minimum temperatures to be “warmer than average” over most of India.
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- Forecast By IMD Mentioned:
(1) Dec-Jan-Feb season will be hotter, except over “northernmost parts”.
(2) Minimum temperatures: most parts of central and peninsular India are likely to be warmer than normal by ≥1 degree Celsius.
(3) India’s ‘core cold wave’ zone: covers Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana. Temperatures in these States, too, are expected to be on the higher side.
(4) Trigger for the warm winters: warm surface waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
(5) IMD’s weather models expect these surface waters to cool over the winter. Overall, winter temperatures have been on the rise.
- The IMD started issuing winter forecasts in 2016 and, except for 2017, had forecast warm winters for all years since then.
- Warm winters, are a sign of global warming as per experts.
(1) India on avg is 0.5 degree Celsius warmer than 50 years ago.
(2) Rising temperatures lead to warmer than average ground temperatures and consequently a rise in minimum temperatures.
(3) Overall global temperatures are on the rise, as indicated many studies, an increase by 1 degree Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
- At current projections, global temperature is expected to rise 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of century & intensify severe weather events.
Sources
The Hindu