North India to witness above normal temperatures this year: India Meteorological Department

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New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday said that there will be 'above normal' seasonal temperatures over north India from March to May.

The IMD stated this in a 'Seasonal Outlook' prepared for the sub-division averaged temperatures for the upcoming summer season from March to May.

Besides North India, there will be above normal seasonal maximum temperatures over sub-divisions of northwest and northeast India, few subdivisions from eastern and western parts of central India and few coastal subdivisions of north peninsular India, according to the National Weather Forecasting Centre of the IMD.

However, below normal seasonal maximum temperatures are likely over most of the sub-divisions of the south peninsula and adjoining central India, according to the 'Seasonal Outlook' report.

Besides this, above normal seasonal minimum temperatures are likely over most of the sub-divisions of north India along the foothills of Himalayas, the northeast, western part of central India and southern part of peninsular India.

Below normal season minimum temperatures are likely over most of the sub-divisions of the eastern part of central India and few subdivisions of the extreme northern part of the country.

Currently, moderate La Nina conditions are prevailing over the equatorial Pacific and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are below normal over the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.

The latest Monsoon Mission Coupled Forecasting System (MMCFS) forecast indicates that La Nina conditions are likely to sustain during the upcoming hot weather season.

Notably, the month of February was the second warmest in the national capital since 1901.

Maximum temperatures during the month were on average four degrees higher than normal, making it exceptionally warm.

Since 2016, the IMD has been issuing seasonal forecast outlooks for sub-division scale temperatures over the country for both hot and cold weather seasons based on predictions from the MMCFS.

The MMCFS has a spatial resolution of about 38 km and improved modules of model physics.

The seasonal temperature forecast outlook was prepared using MMCFS simulations based on the February 2021 initial conditions.