An Analysis of Western Disturbance during 17^th to 21^st February 2005 Over Western Himalayan Region

The highly variable mountain terrain of different altitudes and orientations in Northern India are responsible for complexity of the weather systems. The Himalayan region is frequently affected by eastward moving weather systems known as western disturbance (WD). In this paper a qualitative analysis of very heavy snowfall/rainfall in Kashmir in association with the western disturbance from 17th to 21st February 2005 is given. The use of INSAT imageries and derived products is also highlighted which is found to be immense help in tracking and forecasting of such weather events, over the data sparse western Himalayas region. The outputs of high-resolution mesoscale model have a good capability of making severe weather forecast up to 72 hours. It can be further used for planning transportation, public safety, properties and human lives. It has been observed that Limited Area Model (LAM) predicted weather analysis associated with the above said WD by outputs was found to be reasonably accurate when compared to the actual occurrence of weather.