Patna: Foggy mornings are here to stay, at least till Christmas Eve.
The local Met office had earlier said Patna would get respite from the foggy conditions from Wednesday. But now, they say the local weather conditions have become favourable for the fog formation to continue.
"The conditions have changed in the past two days. The wind speed has come down but the temperature is still low. The combined effect of these two factors and other related things is a conducive condition for fog formation in the city," said Met office scientist Anand Shankar.
Keeping the weather conditions in mind, Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal on Tuesday ordered schools in the district not to start academic activities before 9.30am.
Earlier, the district administration had asked schools not to begin classes before 8am.
While many Patna schools have announced Christmas vacations from December 21, the order will bring relief to students of those schools that have not yet announced their winter-vacation dates.
"As the school is closing for winter break, I am not too concerned about the fog cover over the city. I just hope that the weather improves by the time the schools reopen in January," said Manorama Prasad, whose daughter goes to Don Bosco Primary school.
Westerlies had been blowing at 5-6kmph since Saturday evening but now it has come down to 2-3kmph.
Higher wind speed helps dissipate fog cover but slower wind allows it to stay. Even the temperature levels have come down in Patna, as the maximum temperature is likely to remain between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius in the coming days of the week. The minimum temperature is likely to hover around 9 to 12 degrees Celsius.
The only solace for Patna residents now is that the fog cover is not likely to be present throughout the day. "The fog cover in Patna and adjoining areas will dissipate by 11am whereas in case of north Bihar districts, particularly those in the foothills of the Himalayas, the fog cover would not dissipate before afternoon," Shankar said.
The cyclonic circulation near Lakshadweep, due to which some cloud patches were hovering in some parts of Bihar on Monday, had weakened, he added.
