Chandigarh: After dry October, November also likely to end without any rain
With zero rain, this November will be the driest since 2022, when also no rain was recorded. Since 2012, it will only be the second year with no precipitation in November
After experiencing its driest October since 2020 with no rainfall last month, Chandigarh is unlikely to see any rain through November as well.
According to the extended forecast issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), no rain is expected over the next 10 days.
With zero rain, this November will be the driest since 2022, when also no rain was recorded. Since 2012, it will only be the second year with no precipitation in November.
IMD Chandigarh director Surender Paul said, “Rain during this time of the year is mostly due to Western Disturbances (WD). We haven’t had any active WDs pass through the region this time. They’ve either been too weak or passed to the north of the region.”
On his recent visit to Panjab University, director general of meteorology Mrutyunjay Mohapatra had also said that over the years WDs were becoming less intense. The disturbances originate as tropical storms near the Mediterranean Sea and it is hard to predict how many WDs a particular season will get and whether they will be strong, as per IMD officials.
Due to below average rain, November is also expected to conclude with above normal temperatures.
Even during the week gone by, the day temperature has been fluctuating, going up from 24.1°C on November 17 to 27.8°C on November 20, before recording a slight dip and again climbing to 28.8°C as of November 24.
At 28.8°C, the maximum temperature was 3.2 degrees above normal.
AQI again shoots up to poor
The city’s Air Quality Index (AQI), which had improved to moderate (between 101-200) on Friday and Saturday, again breached the 200 mark on Sunday, entering the poor category. As per the daily AQI bulletin released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) , the average AQI of all three stations of the city at 4 pm on Sunday was 233, up from 198 on Saturday.
Paul said the low rainfall had also impacted AQI throughout the month, with Chandigarh recording even higher pollution levels than Delhi on some days since Diwali. Even one spell of rain could have significantly improved the AQI, he added.
