Mercury at 7.6° C on Friday, but Met says warm winter this year

it to dip further in the coming days because of warm north easterlies, which will raise the minimum temperatures. Usually, in the winters, we see such low minimum temperatures in the month of November itself. This year, we have recorded minimum temperatures quite late in the season,” said Sunita Devi, director of weather (central) at the IMD in Pune.

According to her, temperatures will hover around 8-9 degrees in the coming days. “It is the impact of El Nino and so we are seeing a warmer winter this year,” she said.

Dr S Pai from the Regional Climate Centre of IMD in Pune said the country’s average monthly temperatures were likely to be higher than normal, especially for the months of November, December, January and February. “It is usually seen that an El Nino year has a warmer winter. We see the temperatures dipping quite late into the season as it has been observed on Friday. This is the case in almost all the El Nino years, 2002, 2004 and even this year,” Pai said.

A number of studies by the Met department and private weather services state that winter in India is expected to turn warmer with temperatures rising between 0.4 to 0.8 degrees over the next 20 years.