Kathmandu, January 23

With the weather bright and clear for over a week now, the capital’s temperature has begun to rise, giving valley denizen respite from the severe cold.

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, minimum temperature in the Valley has jumped to 3.5 Degree Celsius by today, from 0.5 Celsius of January 14, the coldest day of this winter in the Valley.

Meteorologist Subash Rimal said if the sky continued to remain clear for a few more days, the winter season would end.

“However, there is a westerly system roaring above Afghanistan and Pakistan, which could possibly bring the cold back in Nepal,” Rimal said, adding, “But if that disturbance does not reach Nepal, the weather will get warmer in the Valley.” He said that based on their observation, it seems likely that the westerly system will divert to Tibet from Dadeldhura of the far-western region.

Rimal said according to the MDF’s three-day prediction system, the westerly system may arrive in the far-western region by Thursday morning, but they have not yet predicted whether the system will reach Kathmandu.

Currently, Nepal has a three-day forecasting system based on both manual and automatic weather data collection stations. The government plans to upgrade this system based on short-range traditional weather forecasting to a numeric weather prediction system by 2018 to increase the accuracy of its weather forecast to 100 per cent. The Hydrology and Meteorology Department is installing weather radars and radiosonde balloons for this.

According to the DHM, of the three weather radars, the import and installation process for one has already begun.