Respite from biting cold conditions after 2 days in Bihar

PATNA: Residents should expect some respite from the prevailing biting cold conditions as India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday stated that cold- wave and cold- wave conditions over Indo- Gangetic plains including Bihar are likely to abate after two to three days. The fog cover is also likely to weaken gradually.
However, the weather is expected to turn colder till then as the prevailing cold- day conditions at many places in the state is expected to be followed by cold- wave conditions.

Cold- day condition was witnessed for second consecutive day at Patna on Tuesday and IMD issued warning for cold- wave conditions at isolated places in Bihar on Thursday and Friday. The cold wave and cold days conditions are however, likely to abate from the region after 2 to 3 days, IMD stated in its forecast on Tuesday.

In meteorological parlance, cold wave conditions are declared at a place when the normal minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius or above but the actual temperature is recorded at seven degrees Celsius or even lower.

Cold day condition on the other hand, is declared when the minimum temperature touches 10 degrees C or low and there is a departure of 4.5-6.4 degrees C in maximum temperature.

Nonetheless, mercury continued to plunge further as the minimum temperature in Patna dropped by a notch in the past 24 hours and it was recorded at 7 degrees C on Monday morning, marking a new lowest for the season.

The gradual plunge in minimum temperature has been attributed to cold north- westerly winds blowing in the region at an average speed of 6-8kmph.

Low temperature apart, majority parts of Bihar continued to remain engulfed in fog cover on Tuesday morning. As per all- India weather bulletin issued by IMD on Tuesday afternoon, dense to very dense fog was observed at Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and majority of the northern plains. Met officials informed that fog cover is termed as dense when visibility is between 50 and 500m and, very dense if the visibility is below 50m.

The weather bulletin of IMD further stated that Patna was among the places in the country, which witnessed lowest visibility of 25m from 11:30pm on Monday night to 8:30 on Tuesday morning. However, the national weather forecaster also predicted some respite from the fog cover owing to north- westerly winds blowing from Himalayan region.

"Light winds are currently prevailing over Indo- Gangetic plains are gradually strengthening. Also, the relative humidity, which was more than 80%, is now decreasing. A western disturbance is moving away eastwards and another feeble western disturbance as a trough is likely to affect the western Himalayan region by January 4. Under the above scenario, density and duration of fog over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are gradually decreasing," IMD's weather bulletin issued on Tuesday stated.