People who thought that the city is still far away from chill, usually experienced during this time of the year, are slowly realising how misunderstood their opinion was. In the last couple of days mercury has plunged considerably forcing people to make preparations for chillier days ahead.
According to meteorological department temperatures in most parts of the state including Ranchi were below normal by two to three degrees. In last ten days minimum temperature dropped from 10.5 degrees, on November 25, to 7.1 degrees (on December 2) and the slide is likely to continue in coming days with a short spells of hot days in between.
Notably, maximum temperature plunged from 26.2 to 24.4 degrees in the first week of December while the minimum temperature declined from 9.2 to 8.3 with mercury touching low of 7.1 degrees on December 2 making it the coldest day of the season so far.
Nonetheless, the meteorological department has predicted some respite from cold in next few days due to low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal which will lead to partly cloudy conditions making the mercury rise.
“There will be mist or shallow fog in the morning of December 6 and is likely to put brakes on mercury slide,” said a weather department official.
The weather department has predicted maximum temperature to hover around 24 degrees while minimum temperature to stay near 9 degrees on December 6.
People who were unconcerned about cold waves until few days back were taken by surprise due to chill in the air and were forced to take measures to insulate themselves from falling victim to dropping mercury. As the cold waves started hitting the city most of the schools have revised their time table for the convenience of their students.
“I normally enjoy cold weather but this time I had expected that it will be delayed. Hot days made me think that the city will remain away from cold but the drop in temperature came as a surprise,” said Kartik Singh, a businessman at Morhabadi.