While most people chose to remain at home, a group of actors braved the cold to perform a street play at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Jan. 2: After waking up to cloudy conditions on the first two days of the new decade, the capital residents will see sunny days this week. But the brighter days will be complemented by chillier nights.

“The cloud cover was the result of a trough line passing over Uttar Pradesh to Jharkhand. It was formed because of western disturbances,” Meteorological department director Animesh Chanda told The Telegraph.

He said: “The trough line is likely to weaken over the next 24 hours and subsequently the skies will clear up.”

Pradhan Parth Sarthi, the academic coordinator of Centre for Environmental Science, Central University of Bihar, echoed Chanda. He said: “The cloudy weather would clear up in the next few days.”

The farewell to the cloud cover would not imply warm weather conditions anyway. Minimum temperatures are likely to dip once the skies clear up.

“The minimum temperature would come to around 9°C — which is normal for this time of the year — once the cloud cover is gone,” said Chanda.

The minimum temperature for the past two days has been around 15°C — almost six degrees above normal.

An expert said the minimum temperature went up because the heat radiated by the earth’s surface after sunset was trapped in the lower level of the atmosphere because of the cloud cover during night.

The maximum temperature in most parts of the state was around 20°C over the past two days because of lack of sunshine.

Once the clouds clear, it would climb to 24°C, making the days comfortable.

Chanda said there was no precipitation in the state today after the slight rainfall at few places like Gaya and Purnea on January 1.

Though the sky would be clear, Rajendra Agriculture University assistant professor of meteorology Abdul Sattar said the sunshine would not be very bright in the next couple of days.

The moisture in the lower-level of the atmosphere would move up and it would not allow the sun to shine as brightly as expected.

“The surface wind is likely to blow between 4km per hour and 10km per hour,” Sattar said. The cold winds would sustain the chill weather, he added.