Pune: Clearer skies and the arrival of dry northerly and north-easterly winds are expected to bring down minimum temperatures across Pune district in the coming days. “The drop in mercury is expected as a clearer sky and dry northerly and north-easterly winds set in. The locations across Pune district can expect cooler mornings,” said a senior official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).Several key areas already saw a dip on Sunday, with minimum temperatures at Chinchwad (17.3°C), Koregaon Park (16.6°C), Shivajinagar (12.9°C), Pashan (12.5°C) and Lohegaon entering the two-digit range. IMD officials said these locations may see a further fall next week.Met officials said the drop is part of the typical early-December pattern seen after the withdrawal of the monsoon. Pune’s daytime temperatures, however, are expected to remain near normal, offering a noticeable contrast between warm afternoons and chilly mornings.In its broader forecast, the IMD said “cold wave conditions are very likely to prevail at a few places over Chhattisgarh on Dec 8 and 9, in isolated pockets over Madhya Pradesh, north Vidarbha and Odisha.”The department has also warned of dense fog during early morning hours in isolated pockets of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura from Dec 8 to 12; in west Madhya Pradesh on Dec 8; in Himachal Pradesh from Dec 8 to 10 and in Odisha on Dec 8 and 9. Visibility in some northern and northeastern states may drop to a few hundred metres, affecting road and air travel, officials said.According to the IMD, multiple weather systems are currently influencing conditions across the country. These include an upper-air cyclonic circulation over east Bangladesh in the lower troposphere and a trough in easterlies over the southeast Bay of Bengal.Under their impact, light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds (30–40 kmph, gusting to 50 kmph) is “very likely” over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from Dec 7 to 10. Light to moderate rain is also likely over Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on Dec 7 and 8.The IMD said the systems are not likely to affect Maharashtra directly, though a marginal fall in night temperatures is expected statewide. Experts said Pune’s winter may intensify further after Dec 15, when colder northwesterly winds typically dominate the region.
