Winter rains to rescue India’s wheat crop as record cold wave to ease after 16 January | Today News

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday forecast rain across most of North India and Lakshadweep from 16 January, as a fresh western disturbance hits the Himalayan region.

Relief from the historic chill is expected after 48 hours, although IMD warns that cold wave conditions will persist across Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, West Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Odisha until then.

Additionally, dense fog is expected to persist over Northwest India and Bihar for the next five to six days.

While snowfall is expected in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh during 16-20 January; Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh may experience isolated rainfall during 18-20 January. Also, Uttar Pradesh and East Rajasthan are expected to receive rainfall on 19-20 January. Separately, Lakshadweep is likely to witness light to moderate rainfall at many places, accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning, on 14 January, according to IMD, Northwest India, including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, is a major wheat-producing area. The rainfall is likely to boost the prospects of winter crops, which are dependent on rain for irrigation.

"The rainfall forecast is expected to be a boon for the wheat crop," said Ratan Tiwari, director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), Karnal.

India’s rabi sowing in 2025–26 rose by more than 1.76 million hectares to 64.42 million hectares as of 9 January, data from the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare showed on Tuesday. The area under rabi crops is 2.8% higher than a year ago and above the season’s average of 63.78 million hectares, driven mainly by increased acreage under wheat, rice, pulses and oilseeds.

Cold wave conditions are expected to persist across Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, West Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha for the next 48 hours before abating, according to IMD.

In its agromet advisory, the IMD has suggested that farmers apply light and frequent irrigation to their standing crops in the evening hours to protect them from low-temperature stress or cold injury. It has also been suggested that farmers use mulching and cover the vegetable nurseries and young fruit plants with straw or polythene sheets to maintain optimum soil temperature.

Meanwhile, the temperature during the past 24 hours, up to 0830 hours today, saw minimum temperatures fall below 0°C at several places in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Muzaffarabad.

Temperatures ranged between 1°C and 5°C across many areas of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and parts of Uttar Pradesh and west Rajasthan, with isolated pockets in Uttarakhand. Minimum temperatures of 5°C to 10°C were recorded at many places in Madhya Pradesh, as well as at a few locations in Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, and Sikkim, Assam, and Meghalaya, and in Saurashtra and Kutch, as well as in isolated areas of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, according to weather data.

The lowest minimum temperature of 0.5°C was observed at Hissar (Haryana) over the plains of India. Additionally, dense fog is likely to persist over northwest India and Bihar for the next 5-6 days.