Youths enjoy the sunny day at a park in Patna on Monday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Jan. 3: The skies cleared up in the state today as the weathermen had predicted. But there was no respite from the biting cold. Dense fog worsened the situation.

Most places in the state shivered as they witnessed a dip in the minimum and maximum day temperatures. Chhapra recorded a minimum of 4.3°C, and was the coldest place in the state yesterday.

“The minimum temperature in Chhapra is five degrees below normal. So it can be said that it is in the grip of a cold wave,” A.B. Gupta, the assistant meteorologist of Patna Meteorological office, told The Telegraph.

Though no other place in the state is in the grip of cold wave yet, the temperatures were a few notches below normal.

The minimum temperature in Patna was 6.4°C, three degrees below normal. At Sabaur near Bhagalpur, it was 5.9°C. Gaya recorded 6.6°C and Purnea 7.2°C.

The sun was bright in most parts of the state but the day temperatures were way below normal.

In Patna, it was 18.2°C. It was 19.8°C in Purnea, while Bhagalpur recorded 19.2°C. Gaya’s maximum day temperature was 16.8°C. The normal day temperature at this time of the year should be between 22°C and 24°C, said a source.

“Most places recorded day maximum temperature way below normal. That is why people are feeling so cold,” said a source in the Met office.

A Met office source said the prevailing situation could not be termed cold wave condition, as the temperatures need to be below 16°C for that. But since the maximum temperatures were way below normal, the people were suffering from the cold.

In the morning, Patna and its surrounding areas were enveloped in dense fog till 11am. This disrupted the schedule of flights in the first half of the day.

The first flight could land here only after 12.30pm, when the visibility improved.

The GoAir morning flight on the Delhi-Patna-Delhi route was delayed by over three hours. The Air India flight on the route operated 90 minutes behind the schedule.

The fog delayed the flights on the Calcutta-Patna route as well. Both the Indigo and the Jet Airways flights on this route operated 90 minutes late.