Ranchi: After a comparatively warm January, the temperature has gone considerably down this month. The average minimum and maximum temperature in most parts of the state was three to four degrees above normal but in February it has remained mostly below the normal temperature.
On Saturday, the temperature plummeted suddenly in the afternoon as western and central districts, including Palamu, Lohardaga, Gumla and Ranchi, received rainfall. “Owing to the western disturbance over eastern parts of Jammu & Kashmir and a cyclonic circulation over south Assam and its neighbourhood, the temperature has gone down,” Abhishek Anand scientist at Ranchi centre of IMD said.
He added that another cyclonic circulation over northeast Madhya Pradesh that was hovering over north Chhattisgarh and its neighbourhood extending up to 2.1km above mean sea level entered Jharkhand and is now proceeding towards Bengal.
Owing to these developments, IMD has predicted drop of around 3-4 degree Celsius in minimum temperature thereby resulting in cold wave condition in northern and central districts like Palamu, Garhwa, Chatra, Koderma, Latehar, Ramgarh, Ranchi, Gumla Bokaro, Hazaribag and Giridih. The cold wave conditions will further proceed to north western and southwestern districts by Monday.
On Saturday the maximum temperature in most parts of the state remained few notches above normal. While Chaibasa was the warmest with 31.6 degree Celsius and a deviation of 3.9 degrees Ranchi recorded the maximum deviation of 4.4 degrees from normal to record maximum temperature of 29.4 degrees.
Though the minimum temperature of Ranchi Bokaro and Daltonganj was above normal, it remained lower in Jamshedpur and Chaibasa, the latter recording coldest minimum temperature of 9.8 degrees.
“The maximum and minimum temperature would start receding from Monday when the northern winds enter the state. Temperature usually falls when the sky is clear and the sky is likely to get clearer from Sunday,” Anand said.