Cold wave grips Pune, further drop in temperature expected

Pune is in the grip of a cold wave, with the city recording its lowest minimum temperature of 7.2 degrees Celsius this season on Monday morning, a good 4 degrees below normal.

Officials of the India meteorological department (IMD) have predicted a further drop in minimum temperature to 6 degrees on Tuesday morning, and expect the minimum temperatures to stay in the 6-8 degree band over the next 3 days.

IMD’s deputy director general (meteorology), Medha Khole, told DNA on Monday afternoon that most of Madhya Maharashtra was experiencing cold wave conditions (4 to 6 degrees below normal) with Nashik city recording 4.8 degrees Celsius on Monday morning.

Khole attributed the cold wave conditions in Pune and Madhya Maharashtra to heavy snowfall and cold wave conditions prevalent across northern India and the easy movement of the northerly winds to central India. While temperatures in Vidarbha were below normal, the region was not yet experiencing cold wave conditions.

On Monday, minimum temperatures plunged in Ahmednagar (7.6 C) and Satara (9 C), but remained out of “cold wave conditions” in Mahabaleshwar (11.6 C), Kolhapur (14.4 C), Mumbai (15.2 C), Nagpur (15 C), Aurangabad (10.3 C) and Amravati (12.4 C).

According to Khole, the movement of moisture laden winds from the west away from northern India had helped the movement of cold winds to central India.

Cold wave conditions prevailed in Jammu and Kashmir, west Rajasthan, west Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, interior Saurashtra and Kutch in Gujarat.