Patna, Dec. 11: Patna on Sunday was colder than Jammu, Shimla and Delhi.

The minimum temperature today plunged to 8.7 degrees Celsius in Patna, the coldest this season so far, as well as in the past five years during this time of the year.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday categorised Patna's weather as "severe cold day". Jammu recorded a minimum of 12.5 degrees Celsius, while Shimla was at 9 degrees Celsius and Delhi was 12.6 degrees Celsius.

With a thick blanket of fog enveloping Patna, cold wave gripped the entire region. The bad news was there will be no respite from the cold for a week, according to the IMD. The minimum temperature will plummet to around 5 degrees Celsius in a couple of days, the weather department said today.

The IMD issued a warning stating: "Dense to very dense fog very likely at a few places and cold-day conditions at isolated places in Bihar will prevail on December 11 and 12." For December 13, the department has warned of dense to very dense fog. The IMD in its bulletin issued today said: "Till December 17, Patna will witness cold days."

The visibility recorded by IMD at 1pm in Patna was 50m with minimum temperatures below normal up to 3 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature recorded today was marked below normal up to 5.1 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature of Patna on Sunday was 14 degrees Celsius.

Patna Met director Sumendu Sengupta said: "It is the impact of the northerly and north-westerly winds picking up pace since yesterday. With the thin gap between minimum and maximum temperature, chilly winter has finally arrived. This will continue for the next two-three days after which the temperature is expected to fall further."

More than seven-degree fall in maximum temperature from 21.7 degrees on Thursday to 14.4 degrees on Sunday made people shiver, said a weatherman adding: "Even the minimum temperature plummeted from 12.2 degrees Celsius recorded on Thursday to 8.7 degrees Celsius today, a near four degrees Celsius low."

With visibility varying from as low 50m to 200m, rail, road and air services were badly affected. Several flights were cancelled and almost all ran behind schedule.

The first flight to arrive in Patna on Sunday was GoAir 272, which landed here at 12.14pm with a delay of 29 minutes. However, the IndiGo 6E 652 flight, which departs from Delhi at 8.45am and arrives in Patna at 10.30am reached Patna at 2.12pm today.

The IndiGo flight 6E-367, which operates on Delhi-Patna route, departed at 4.33pm against the scheduled departure of 12.45pm, around four hours late, while Air India New Delhi-Patna flight AI 410 departed at 4.08pm, a delay of 1.43 hours.

IndiGo has withdrawn three flights, while GoAir and Air India, too, have withdrawn a flight each on the Patna-New Delhi route.

The weather has also affected train schedules especially those coming from New Delhi and Calcutta to Patna.

Around 26 trains originatingerminating/passing through Patna have been cancelled, said chief public relations officer of east central railways, Arvind Kumar Rajak. Out of the 26 trains, 14 have been cancelled for a month, Rajak said, adding, 32 passenger trains have also been cancelled for two months.

The trains that were running behind schedule were Sampoorna Kranti Express (30 hours), Farakka Express (16 hours), Punjab Mail (21 hours), Brahmputra Mail (23 hours), Toofan Express (13 hours), Mahananda Express (17 hours), Shramjeevi Express (12 hours) and Himgiri Express (8 hours) till the filing of the report.

The three major trains that were re-scheduled today from New Delhi to Patna were Rajdhani Express, which was scheduled to leave Delhi at 10.30pm instead of 5.15 pm, Poorva Express was scheduled to leave Delhi at 12.50am instead of 5.35pm and Vikramshila Express scheduled to leave Delhi at 10.30pm against schedule departure of 2.40pm.