Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Mumbai Weather:

Taking stock of the Mumbai local weather this year,shows a warm trend and frequent "heat waves" during winter. Again,today the temperature has risen to 36°c at Santacruz,and 35°c at Colaba.Santacruz was 36°c,which is 4°c above,for the fourth day running !Now,this has frequented too often this winter.In the attached graph of Mumbai,the first diagram of the last 30 days shows a big patch of red(above normal),and that too for most of the days.The second diagram indicates that the average temperature this time in Jan/Feb has been above normal by almost 2°c ! And that means considerably warmer than usual !

Even the nights are far too warm for comfort.The minimum was 24°c,which is 7°c above !

Infact,the entire Gujarat and Maharashtra region has heated up,with the hottest spot today being Baroda and Surat at 37°c.The heated area is clearly seen in the map.

Mumbai is hot due to strong inland winds,and lack of northerly winds.The winds should reverse from the 24/25th.of Feb.Whatever the reasons,the city has been deprived of any meaningful winter this season.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Paraglider swept into thunderstorm :
"Severe thunderstorms over southern and eastern states in Australia have caused serious and in some cases tragic consequences for Paragliders, who have been training for the world paragliding championships.
A German champion paraglider was sucked into a powerful thunderstorm earlier this week. She was swept over 32, 000 feet above sea level, which is higher than Mount Everest, into the eye of the storm, near Manila in New South Wales. This all happened in about 15 minutes due to the strong updraughts inside the Cumulonimbus cloud (specific clouds associated with thunderstorms). The glider moved with a speed of 20 m/s (39 mph) whilst ascending within the cloud and the powerful downdraughts brought her down at 30 m/s (58 mph). Cumulonimbus clouds are fuelled by vigorous convective updraughts (sometimes in excess of 58 mph); the tops of the clouds can easily reach 39, 000 feet. Large thunderstorms have deep rotating updraughts and can have a lifetime of several hours. They can produce frequent lightning, large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes. The sportswoman was unconscious for part of this remarkable ‘flight’ but when she awoke she was aware of lightning and heard thunder all around her. It is amazing that she survived this ordeal. Not surprisingly she suffered frostbite to her face, as temperatures near the top of the cloud would have been as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius. The combination of moisture and very low temperatures cocooned the glider in ice. She also endured abrasions on her legs from large, pelting hailstones."

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A very interesting fact I borrowed from Jim:
"Nepal, where Kathmandu, its capital city, had rare snow Wednesday_14th.feb. There were drenching thunderstorms along the Himalayan foothills (amongst which the city lies) and it must have been towards the hed of these rains (late in the day) that rain turned to wet snow or even small, soft hail. Whatever, the cold, white stuff lay on the ground, reportedly for the first time in more than 60 years."
Even Darjeeling in W.Bengal had snow,after 2 years,and a minimum of -2°c.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Highest snowfall on single day in Feb since 1908 in Simla.

Simla had intermittent snow throughout on Monday and by evening it had 20 cm of snow taking the total during the current spell to 92 cm. The 62 cm of snow recorded in the past 24 hours was the highest on a single day in February since 1908 when 63.5 cm of snow recorded on second day of the month. Other highs were 55.9 cm (February 18,1978) and 54 cm (February 2,2002). In the past 58 hours 97 cm of rain and snow was recorded.

Narkanda had 90 cm of snow, while the nearby Hatu Peak recorded the highest snowfall of 120 cm. Chini Bangla, and Fagu had 80 cm each and the Chail area 40 cm to 50 cm.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Much needed rain arrived across parts of Pakistan and the north of India during Friday bringing with it a marked drop in temperature.
Delhi:
For residents of Delhi, India, the arrival of the rain and cold in northern India on Friday night sprang a real surprise. After several weeks of experiencing some very mild weather they had been led into a false sense of security that winter might actually have ended. After experiencing temperatures in the high 20C’s earlier this week- up to 29C in Delhi on Tuesday, the thermometer took a sharp dip with the high on Saturday reaching just 17.2C. This was a good six degrees below the normal expected maxima .

Strong W.D. rains/snow all over North :
Kashmir:
Fresh Western Disturbances finally ended the two-month long dry spell, as the hills of H.P. and Kashmir experienced moderate to heavy snowfall, while plains, including the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, had rains.The famous ski resort of Gulmarg had also light snowfall, while upper reaches, including Affarwat and Khilanmarg, had about 6 inches to 1 feet of fresh snowfall, much to the delight of skiers and adventure lovers.About 6 inches to 1 feet of fresh snowfall was also recorded at holy Amarnath cave its periphery.Srinagar and other plain areas in the valley had rains since last evening, ending the two-month-long dry spell.A white carpet today greeted pilgrims at the world-famous Mata Vaishnodevi’s cave shrine on the Trikuta hills of Katra. Temperature at the shrine dropped as Trikuta hills received heavy snowfall last night.
Simla:
A blinding blizzard lashed the “queen of hills”,Simla, and mid-hill areas of the state today, paralysing normal life.
The snow-storm hit the region in the wee hours and continued till the evening. Simla and the surrounding areas donned an impeccable white mantle, much to the delight of the tourists and the locals who have been waiting for the elusive snowfall all through the winter.the city had received 71 cm of snow. The Jakhu peak and nearby tourist resort of Kufri were under knee-deep snow. The Hatu peak, overlooking the tourist resort of Narkanda, was under 90 cm of snow, while Churdhar and Rohtang Pass had over 100 cm of snow.

Punjab/Haryana:
Heavy rain, accompanied by thunder squalls, lashed Punjab and Haryana for the second consecutive day today, uprooting trees, snapping telecommunication lines and crippling normal life. Chandigarh received 63.5 mm of rainfall during the night and a thunder squall with a wind speed of 64.8 kmph hit the city.Ambala was the wettest place, recording 75.7 mm of rain.Amritsar was lashed by 21.2 mm of rainfall, Hoshiarpur 32 mm, Ludhiana 22.1 mm and Patiala 44.1 mm.
(Report from the Tribune).

Friday, February 09, 2007

Rainy weekend for North

North India and Pakistan are bracing up to recieve the highest magnitude W.D.yet this season.The W.D. will move into Pakistan on Thursday,and into Kashmir and H.P.on Friday,9th.Feb.The plains of Punjab,Haryana and Rajasthan and Delhi will get rains on Saturday.The ECMWF(forecasting network of Europe)sees the system sitting on the plains for 3 days,and then moving east.The hot front end of the system have held on for a long period,resulting in high temperatures during the last week.
From the weekend,the temperatures should fall to below normal in most of the regions.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

There have been thunderstorms here this week much as one would expect in early March rather than the dry months of winter. At Chittagong, Bangladesh, rainfall on Monday into Tuesday was 84 mm. This is almost as much rain as normally falls in the first three months of the year. Today, 40mm downpour hit Balasore, Orissa, more than one February`s worth of rain.
These rains result from the above-normal warmth that has settled over the Subcontinent this month together with a strong sub-tropical jet stream which has dipped southward over Bangladesh and eastern India.

A trough and cold front will shift to western Pakistan by the 9th (Friday) and to the northern Subcontinent on the 10th and 11th. This will bring the first widespread rains (thunderstorms, mountain snows) in weeks to Aghanistan, Pakistan and northern India. The result will be a cold wave ,on sunday/Monday in N.India and Central India(including Maharashtra and Gujarat).

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Mumbai has done it again today.On 1st.Feb.Mumbai(Santa cruz)recorded a(very)high of 37°c !Now,just for my readers information,the highest temperature recorded in Asia today was 38°c at Rayong Airport,Thailand,And the second highest was at Mumbai,37°c.

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