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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

26/01/24 07:08 AM IST

Why is there no snowfall in Kashmir?

In News
  • January is usually the month when Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are blanketed with snow. This winter has however seen these regions extremely dry.
Reason for lack of snowfall
  • Snowfall requires adequate moisture as well atmospheric temperatures to be 0 degrees C or lower.
  • Temperatures have been fairly low since December. An analysis by the IMD in mid-January reported that maximum temperatures were running 5-8 degrees C ‘below normal’ over the plains of North India since December 29.
  • Minimum temperatures were also below 4 degrees C at many stations in Northwest India for most of January.
  • While moisture and high aerosol loads contribute to fog, there were three major reasons behind the lack of snowfall, and consequently intense cold waves over North India.
  • These were a drastic fall in the number of Western Disturbances (WDs) over Northwest India; prevailing El Niño conditions, and the absence of a strong jet stream.
Impact of WDs
  • WDs are storms that originate in the mid-latitude regions and travel thousands of kilometres to bring rains across northern India.
  • Such WDs in the winter dissipate fog and increase the sunshine incident on the ground, raising temperature there.
  • When the temperatures are low, they also result in snowfall and water being available as snow melt.
  • Melting glaciers contribute to the water available to the Ganga, the Indus, and the Yamuna rivers.
  • WDs can also result in hail, which is destructive to standing wheat crops. Usually, five to seven WDs affect Northwest India in the period from December to January. But this winter, there have been none.
  • In general, the traditional pattern of WDs has been disrupted since 2019, which was the last year we had a conventional WD pattern.
Role of Jet Streams
  • Jet streams are powerful winds, ranging in speed from 250 to 320 km/hr, travelling at about 12 km above mean sea level.
  • They are the carriers of WDs. However, a lack of moisture means they have been contributing to the subsidence of cold air so far, thus enhancing the cold over north India.
  • The jet streams set in after the monsoon withdraws and are also able to draw in moisture from the Arabian Sea. In recent years, the jet streams have been shifting northwards.
  • This, emerging research has suggested, is a result of the warming of the Arctic seas, which then affects the natural gradient of temperature required to ensure the strength and direction of the jet streams.
Source- The Hindu

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