By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Easterlies (winds blowing from the east) causing a trough in the eastern part of the country including Meghalaya covering Odisha, West Bengal and extending up to Andhra Pradesh in South India is causing the ongoing peculiar weather condition which is effecting the combination of both sunny and gloomy conditions in the city. This was confirmed by a weather expert from Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Guwahati.
With the northeast receiving a moderate amount of rainfall in the recent past along with cold waves which is mostly a countrywide phenomenon, there are reports of rainfall now in the south eastern states of the country.
The RMC weather expert said that a cyclonic twirl has caused two entrenched upper air cyclonic circulations over eastern India, particularly Bihar and has also spread to northern India and in the north eastern region including Meghalaya.
The weatherman explained that the moisture laden easterlies originating from Bay of Bengal are proceeding in a south easterly direction and has found a safer place in the trough and is also producing rainfall.
This has resulted in rainfall in the north east and in the southern part of the country. Forecast for the next few days indicate sporadic rainfall with incoming western disturbances which will spread over the entire eastern region.
The weatherman further warned that sporadic rainfall will be experienced from time to time till the end of this month. “And a biting cold wave will prevail in this region for this period,” he said adding a foggy situation will also persist. He also said hilly areas like Shillong will experience rapid changes in weather conditions “in a day” on a regular basis.
The minimum temperatures are below normal by 2 to 3 deg Celsius over eastern part of India. It is also forecasted that a cold wave along with frost type conditions would occur over the region.
Coldest day: Meanwhile, Shillong experienced the coldest day of the month on Friday with the minimum temperature dropping to 3.4 degree Celcius, Meteorological officials said here.
The sudden dip of mercury and the dense fog gave the entire city a deserted look as most of the people preferred to stay indoors.
Some of the shopowners in the commercial centres at Kyndai-lad and Laitumkrah had even kept their shutters down.
”It’s a very cold today and so we prefer to stay indoors,” several city denizens said.
According to the Met office, the cold wave is likely to continue for another two to three days.
Further fall in the temperature is also predicted. (With inputs from UNI)