Patna:
Patna, Bihar's capital, shivered under cold wave conditions as maximum temperature was 15.4 degree celsius, while the minimum plummeted to 5.6 degrees.
Very dense fog also enveloped the city bringing down the visibility to less than 50 metres in the morning.
Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) station director at Patna, AK Sen told PTI, "An advection fog having a radius of 30 kilometres was noticed over Patna just after sunrise. It brought down the day temperature 9 degrees below the normal. The departure in minimum temperature was also 4 degrees from the normal."
Advection fog is formed by the slow passage of relatively warm, moist, stable air over a colder wet surface.
Mr Sen said that entire Bihar was under cold wave situations with temperatures going down. Gaya witnessed a maximum temperature of 21.1 degree celsius and a minimum of 5.7 degrees, while in Bhagalpur the maximum was 15.6 degrees celsius and minimum was 9.8 degrees celsius.
Muzaffarpur in north Bihar experienced maximum and minimum temperatures of 18 degree celsius and 8.8 degree celsius respectively. In Supaul, it was 19.9 and 7.1 degrees, while at Chapra it was recorded at 16.1 degree and 5.7 degrees. Apart from Patna, very dense fog was also seen at Purnia on the northeast corner of the state.
"The cold wave over Bihar will continue till the morning of December 30, after which there will be change in the weather pattern. The current northern wind will give way to easterly winds leading to a marked increase in daily temperature," Mr Sen added.
Dense fog hit transport services across the state.
Dozens of long distance trains were running late from three to
15 hours. Flights at the Patna airport were rescheduled as very low visibility hampered landing of aircraft. Meanwhile, the state government has ordered burning of bonfires at important public places so that the poor could escape the cold.
State Disaster Management Department (DMD) officials said bonfires have been arranged at 1,993 places in the state where 1.8 lakh kilograms of firewood is being burnt. They also said so far no death due to cold has been confirmed, and a rickshaw-puller died today in the state capital as he was ill for some time.