Two girls cover themselves from top to toe as they move around on a two-wheeler in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, Dec. 21: The city residents would have to bear with the biting cold at least for the next three days. So will the people elsewhere in the state.

The next 24 hours could be really cold, as a statewide cold wave alert has been sounded. The past 24 hours were not cosy either.

The state capital continued to reel from extreme cold conditions today, as the minimum temperature stood at 7.9°C, 0.4 degrees less than yesterday. The sunrays pierced through the fog blanket for a few hours, but failed to give respite to the residents of the state capital from the day cold condition. The maximum temperature stood at 14.5°C.

Chhapra remained the only district officially declared to be reeling from cold wave conditions for the second consecutive day today. The minimum temperature there was 5.5°C.

Animesh Chanda, the director of Patna Met department, attributed the extreme cold weather condition in the state, including the state capital, to low temperature and low-pressure condition in the Himalayan belt.

“The maximum temperature in Patna on Wednesday was 12.3°C, nine degrees below the expected temperature of the day. The minimum temperature stood at 7.9°C, which was two degrees below normal. The low temperature and low-pressure belt in the Himalayan region covering Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and north-westerly wind are triggering extreme weather conditions in the state,” said Chanda.

He added: “The low pressure and temperature belt would persist in UP and Bihar for another three to four days. Till it drifts away from the affected regions, the extreme cold weather condition in the state would continue. Both maximum and minimum temperatures would remain lower than the average. Moisture content in the air would veer around 90 per cent in case of mild foggy condition and 100 per cent in case of dense fog.”

“Abdul Sattar, assistant professor of meteorology at Rajendra Agriculture University (RAU), Pusa, said: “The maximum temperature across all north Bihar districts is likely to hover around 12°C in the next 48 hours. The reason behind such severe cold condition is north-westerly winds, westerly disturbances and the influence of climate change.”

Flights hit

Bad weather condition hit air traffic today. The first flight landed at Jaiprakash Narayan International Airport after 12noon. Jet Airways and Kingfisher cancelled a flight each.