Foreign tourists outside Patna airport on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Dec. 22: This Christmas would be cold, temperature-wise. For, the weathermen are of the view that there would be no major northward movement of the mercury column till December 25.

“Apart from the probability of a slight increase in the day temperature, the prevailing conditions are likely to continue till December 25. The day cold condition is likely to prevail during the next few days. Both minimum and maximum temperatures would remain significantly low. There would be fog cover in the morning,” said Animesh Chanda, the director of Patna Met department.

Three days before the Christmas, the capital residents today got an inkling of what is in store. At 6.5°C, the capital recorded one of the coldest mornings of the season. The maximum temperature was 14.5°C, nine degrees below normal.

“The lowest minimum temperature in the state was recorded in Gaya at 4.4°C, followed by Chhapra, where the minimum temperature stood at 5.3°C. A cold wave alert has been sounded in all the districts of the state for the next 24 hours,” added Chanda.

The city residents had been shivering in cold for the past few days.

“I can feel the cold biting my hands when I leave for school. My hands are almost numb and I find it difficult to write my paper at a good speed for the first few minutes. We do not have any option as the Central Board of Secondary Education would not allow postponement of exams because of the weather conditions,” said Sharanya, a Class XI student of Radiant International School.

Even the eateries have been hit by the dip in the temperature. “The footfall in our restaurant has been very poor during the past fortnight. There has been a major setback to the normal course of business during the evening hours. Few people are coming down to our restaurant in the evening, which is otherwise considered a peak time for business,” said Ravindra Kumar, the general manager of Moti Mahal Deluxe, a restaurant in Patliputra.

The spirit of cinegoers seemed to soar amid the dipping mercury, though. “There has been a slight drop in the crowd count for the morning shows but it picks up in the afternoon. The box office collection has remained unaffected because of movies like The Dirty Picture and Mission: Impossible 4-Ghost Protocol,” said Abhishek Ranjan, the unit manager of Cinepolis.

Flight timings

The flight operations started today from 12noon and ended by 7pm.

Owing to frequent disruption in the operation of flights from Patna airport, Jet Airways has rescheduled the operation of its two flights flying on Calcutta-Patna route.

In place of the existing morning flight (S2 204/401) operating on the Calcutta-Patna-Calcutta route, it would start a new flight (9W 2852/2853) that would arrive at Patna at 2.30pm and depart at 3pm. Similarly, in place of its evening flight (S2 402/403) bound for Calcutta, it would bring in a new flight (9W 2854/2855) that would arrive here at 7pm and depart at 7.30pm. The rescheduling would be in effect from December 24.