Students cover themselves with woollen clothes to beat the biting cold in Patna on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Jan. 10: Bihar residents continued to shiver today with cold day conditions prevailing in 20 places, including the state capital, because of dense fog.

The maximum day temperature remained below 16°C in Patna (15.4), Bhagalpur (11.4), Purnea (11.0), Begusarai (11.3), Bhojpur (15.2), Buxar (14.6), Madhubani (10.2), Jehanabad (15.7), Harnaut (15.6), Jamui (15.5), Katihar (9.8), Madhepura (9.8), West Champaran (10), Munger (12.2), Muzaffarpur (12.5), Pupri in Sitamarhi (10.5), Pusa in Samstipur district (11.2), Sheohar (10.3), Siwan (11.2) and Vaishali (14.2).

An official of the weather office said thick cover of fog was causing the day cold condition. With major parts of the state engulfed with fog, sun is not shining brightly. This is triggering low day temperature, said the official.

The foggy conditions in Patna today adversely affected the flight operations in the first-half of the day. Most of the flights operated behind the schedule. The worst-hit was GoAir’s Delhi-Patna-Delhi morning flight. It operated almost three hours behind schedule.

The weatherman said at least five places in Bihar were under the grip of cold wave on Monday. The minimum temperature was more than four degrees below normal at Gaya (4.8), Bhagalpur (6.8), Chhapra (4.7), Dehri-on-Sone (4) and Motihari (4.5).

A mild north-westerly wind blowing at an average speed of about 7km per hour across the state has made things tougher for the residents of Bihar. The prevailing wind is adding to the bite in the cold.

The meteorological official said the weather condition would remain more or less same in the next 24 hours.

“Things may change from Wednesday as a western disturbance has developed in west of Afghanistan and it is likely to reach the north-western India on Wednesday. Under the influence of this disturbance the fog would become thinner. Cloudy conditions, accompanied by light rain, is likely to prevail. This may give some respite from the biting cold,” he said.

The Met official also said that the impact of western disturbance might be felt in Bihar on January 14 or 15.

“It is, however, too early to forecast anything right now. Things will become clear only on Wednesday morning,” he added.

Keeping the severe cold condition in mind, chief secretary of Bihar would hold a video conference with district magistrates on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.

He would also discuss the progress made in distributing relief in the drought-hit districts, said a source in the disaster management department.