Residents of Bhopal woke up to an unusually harsh winter morning this Saturday as the city found itself enveloped in a thick blanket of fog for nearly ten hours. The severe conditions created a rare cold day-like scenario, with the sun remaining hidden until the afternoon and visibility severely reduced.
Fog Disrupts Life, Visibility Drops to 200 Metres
The heavy fog first descended upon the capital of Madhya Pradesh around 2:30 am on Saturday and stubbornly lingered past noon. What began with a visibility of 800 metres drastically worsened between 6 am and 8 am, when it dropped to a mere 200 metres. This made driving extremely hazardous and disrupted normal life. The city recorded a minimum temperature of 11.0 degrees Celsius and a maximum of just 20.2 degrees Celsius.
Meteorological Explanation Behind the Sudden Chill
According to weather experts, this sharp shift was driven by powerful jet stream winds blowing over northwest India at an altitude of approximately 12.6 km. These winds were racing at a speed of nearly 278 km per hour. The moisture-laden winds caused the maximum temperature to fall by 3.6 degrees from the previous day, settling at 3.8 degrees below the seasonal normal. This marked the first official cold day of the winter season in Bhopal.
State-Wide Weather Patterns and Temperature Trends
The past 24 hours remained dry across all divisions of Madhya Pradesh, though cold day conditions were also reported in Rajgarh and Datia districts. The temperature drop was most pronounced in the Ujjain division, where maximums fell sharply by 4.4 degrees. The Bhopal and Sagar divisions also saw appreciable drops of 3.0 to 3.6 degrees.
Night temperatures presented a mixed picture across the state. While the Gwalior division saw minimums fall appreciably by 2.1 degrees, other areas remained largely unchanged. Notably, minimum temperatures stayed significantly above normal in several divisions:
- Bhopal, Ujjain, Chambal, and Jabalpur: 2.2 to 2.9 degrees above normal.
- Rewa and Sagar: 3.6 to 3.8 degrees above normal.
- Shahdol division: markedly above normal by a significant 6.0 degrees.
While January last winter saw no rainfall, meteorological officials have indicated that the current weather pattern could potentially bring some precipitation to the state this month.
