Mercury levels of the State have been decreasing for the past few days. Normal temperature has fallen by about 4 degrees because of heavy snow fall in hilly areas of the north. The Meteorological Department predicts that temperatures are likely to show ups and downs in the coming days.
Minimum temperature on Thursday was 9.4 degrees Celsius, which fell down to 5.8 degrees on Friday. Kanke suffered with 1.1 degrees Celsius again on Thursday. Average maximum temperature of the capital last week was 25 degrees and minimum remained 9 degrees. This week, the average maximum temperature was 23.4 degrees and minimum temperature was 6.6 degrees. Chairman of Department of Agricultural Physics and Meteorology of Birsa Agricultural University (BAU), A Wadood, informed that heavy snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir is responsible for fall in temperatures in the lower plains. Winds are flowing in the North West to South East direction and so the air is carrying chills.
He also informed that December 25 to January 10 is the peak time of the year when extreme cold conditions prevail in the state because of maximum snowfall in the hills. Saturday experienced the lowest temperature of the season, 4.5 degrees in Ranchi. Temperatures may fall down further in the coming days. looking at the cold conditions of the town, Member of Parliament Ramtahal Choudhary has written a letter to District Commissioner to arrange for bonfire in rural and urban areas. He has also asked for the distribution of blankets among the elderly. Sub-Divisional Officer, Amit Kumar informed that blanket distribution has already been done before and after the elections and order for distribution or bonfire has not been received yet.
"This chilling weather conditions will exist for the next 4 to 5 days. Variations will also be seen in the temperature trends till January 14. It is all because of heavy snowfall in the mountain regions resulting in fall of temperatures in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand," said Nitish Priyadarshi, environmentalist. The Meteorological Department informed that first week of the coming year will be shivery cold as days will remain cloudy. Disturbances in the Bay of Bengal will cause cloudy skies in January. There is more humidity in the atmosphere because of which direct sunrays are unable to reach the land surface. Hence, fog will also increase in the atmosphere.