An expansive, heat-building anticyclonic circulation persisted over interior Maharashtra and adjoining Telangana and North Interior Karnataka on Wednesday morning even as a fresh, cooler western disturbance readied to sweep into the Himalayan reaches of north-west India from Thursday.
The advancing western disturbance, already marked by dense cloud bands, moved across Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, with its leading edge filtering into Gilgit and Leh. Its trailing flank is poised to strike Pakistan before progressing eastwards into India’s north-western frontier.
Moderate rain, snow
India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast isolated to scattered light to moderate rain or snowfall, accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds of 30–50 km/hr over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad on Friday and Saturday, extending into Himachal Pradesh over the weekend.
Further south and east, a dominant anticyclone, in concert with characteristic pre-monsoon features, continues to script volatile weather. A wind discontinuity, where opposing sea-borne currents converge to form a trough-like zone, along with more defined troughs of low pressure, has been triggering thunderstorms, lightning and occasional hail across parts of the peninsula and east-central India.
Troughs, circulations
Upper-air cyclonic circulations hung over both the hills and plains of West Bengal, funnelling moisture from the Bay of Bengal into higher atmospheric layers to condense as showers and thunder squalls. Additional circulations have been observed over north Chhattisgarh and Telangana, reinforcing instability over Central India.
A trough or wind discontinuity stretched in from north Chhattisgarh all the way down to the Comorin region, cutting across Telangana, interior Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Another trough extended from north-west Bihar to Manipur, aligned with a cyclonic circulation over the hills of West Bengal, Bangladesh and Assam.
Pre-monsoon climes
Collectively, these circulations and troughs underpin the country’s pre-monsoon weather regime. Even as the anticyclone drives daytime temperatures sharply higher, the resulting convection draws in moisture-laden winds from surrounding seas, setting the stage for scattered but often intense spells of rain and thunderstorms.
In its three-day outlook, the IMD has indicated the likelihood of fairly widespread precipitation over the hills of north-west India as the western disturbance advances inland. Elsewhere, isolated rainfall is expected over Gujarat and parts of the west coast, including Kerala, Coastal Karnataka and Goa.
Published on April 22, 2026