Maximum early morning temperatures were normal at Ahemedabad, Nagpur, Patna and Pune on December 11. They were above normal by a degree at Chandigarh, Jammu, Amritsar, Udaipur, Varanasi, Dehradun, Agartala, Calcutta and Guwahati. Maximum early morning temperatures were above normal by two degrees over Delhi, Allahabad, Lucknow, Bhopal and Imphal and it was above normal by three degrees in Jaipur. The maximum early morning temperature was, however, above normal by 6 degrees in Shimla and by 4 degrees in Mumbai.

Maximum early morning temperatures were below normal by a degree in Chennai and Shillong and below normal by two degrees in Srinagar, Hyderabad.The night temperatures were below normal by 2 to 4 degrees in south Rajasthan, Gujarat, interior Maharashtra, south Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and north interior Karnataka during most days of the week ending December 9. These were above normal by 3 to 4 degrees in north Rajasthan, plains of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, northeastern states and extreme south peninsula during the second half of the week and nearly normal elsewhere in the country.

Atmospheric Humidity: Atmospheric humidity levels on December 11 still remained as high as 29 per cent above normal in Delhi with foggy weather followed by 25 per cent above normal in Chandigarh with mist, and Patiala with fog. The humidity level was 22 per cent above normal in Patna and Pune, 19 per cent above normal in Hissar, 17 per cent above normal in Varanasi, Bhubaneswar and Bhopal, 16 per cent above normal in Varanasi, 15 per cent above normal in Dehradun, 14 per cent above normal in Calcutta and 12 per cent above normal in Nagpur. Humidity levels were abovenormal by single digit in Jammu, Srinagar, Amritsar, Allahabad, agartala, Bangalore, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and Shillong.

Weather Forecast: Increased rainfall activity expected over south peninsula and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Cold wave conditions likely to continue over Jammu & Kashmir and southwest Rajasthan. Rain or snow is likely to occur at few and isolated places in Himachal Pradesh and J&K. Ground frost is likely at a few places in west Rajasthan.

Advice To Farmers

Wheat: The Agromet Advisory Unit of Indian Meterological Department has sounded a word of caution to farmers. It has advised the farmers of north India to complete sowing of wheat by this week. Sowing of wheat seed of late sown varieties like Sonalika, WH 291, HD 2285 and Sonak should be undertaken at the rate of 10 kg per acre. For the already timely sown wheat, irrigation should be resorted after 25 days of sowing and precaution should be taken for the removal of weeds through hoeing after first irrigation.For control of phalaris minor and oat, 1.25 litre lasoon should be mixed with 100 litre water and sprayed over one acre after 35 days of sowing. Second doze of nitrogen should be applied after first irrigation at the rate of 60 kg per litre.

Chickpea & lintel: Complete sowing at the earliest and irrigate after 45 days of sowing.

Rabi oilseeds: It's time to harvest the matured crop of toria. For control of mustard aphid over toria, rai and sursoan use 250 to 350 milli litre of dimethoate 30 per cent EC or 60 to 90 ml Phosphamidon 85 SL in 250 litre water for spraying over one acre land.

Sugarcane: Affected crops, mostly in Sonepat, Rohtak and Faridabad districts should be harvested at the earliest and the debris of the crop destroyed.