By Purushottam P. Khatri
Kathmandu, Dec. 23
Though, Sunday, December 22, is said to be the shortest day of the year, the Kathmanduites enjoyed the day with bright sunlight, clear sky and a mesmerizing view of the snow-capped mountains.
When the breeze blew away haze from the east and north parts of the valley, all the mountains, standing tall in the east and north of the valley, became visible.
One could see the mountain range while driving from Koteshwore to Babarmahal, and from Maitighar to New Road Gate and other places.
Senior meteorologist Min Kumar Aryal said that the valley witnessed the clearest day due to cold wind blown inside the Valley through four major passes -Thankot, Sanga, Nala and Muddkhu or Tinpiple- and the last week’s winter rainfall caused by the westerly disturbances, helped clear the valley sky on Sunday. This resulted crystal clear visibility of tall snow-capped mountains.
The mountains seen from the vantage points of the tall buildings of city resemble the roofs of the old houses and temple as if our forefathers had invented the pagoda by being influenced from the mountains which they used to see every day, some Kathmanduites said.
“The passengers of the Thai Air must be very lucky to fly first towards east and latter to north when the sky is clear,” said a man at Koteshwore pointing to the Thai Air’s aircraft that took off at 2.20pm from the Tribhuvan International Airport.
However, the southern part of the valley remained hazy.
In such condition, the minimum temperature of the early morning depletes sharply and help the sun to peep as quickly as possible in the morning, Senior Meteorologist Aryal said.
According to him, last week’s winter rainfall in the Valley and outside helped clear about 70-80 per cent of pollution that had been accumulated in the Valley’s atmosphere.
And the remaining 30 to 20 per cent of pollution of the Valley cleared by the cloud and continuous wind that blew from the four passes in the night and early morning this week, he said.
When the weather of Kathmandu Valley is clear, people could see the Jugal, Ganesh and Langtang Mountains from Kathmandu.
Following the last week’s rainfall, majority of the mountain ranges have been covered with snow and from that place, a snowy-like cold wind has been blowing which has made Kathmandu colder and its sky clear this week, Meteorologist Aryal said.
When weather in Kathmandu remains windy and clear sky and atmosphere is always possibility of developing frost in the Valley and due to which people in Kathmandu experienced a severe frost bite if they came out of their homes in the early morning.
As long as the windy situation remains, the sky in the same breezy night and next morning will be clear allowing sun to emerge early, another meteorologist Shanti Kandel said.
After next two or three days, the Valley’s weather will again become hazy due to rise in pollution blocking the view of mountains from Kathmandu.
Meanwhile, according to the Meteorological Forecasting Division website, eastern and western Terai regions remained blanketed by dense fog causing low visibility in the morning and day time.
The situation is quite normal in the central Terai as compared to dense fog situation in the eastern and western Terai, according to Kandel.
Locals in Terai regions have been unable to see the sun in the day time as the regions were covered by thick fog and severe cold, she said.
Visibility in Janakpur, Nepalgunj and Biratnagar is just 50 metres. Visibility of less than 100 metres (330 ft) is usually reported as zero. In these conditions, roads and air services should all be closed, she said.
Similarly, the visibility in Bhairahawa and Simara was registered at 400 and 600 metres respectively.
The minimum temperature in Kathmandu on Sunday was recorded at 4.2 degree Celsius while Jumla recorded the coldest day with minus 4 degree Celsius