Wrapped in woollens, a family enjoys an outing at Eco Park on Tuesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Residents feeling the chill at night and early morning are definitely not mistaken. Winter is indeed here, roughly two weeks in advance.

The Met department has declared an early onset of winter in the region this time with the minimum temperature plunging several degrees below normal over the past couple of days.

The mercury column in the state capital on Tuesday recorded 11.7ºC, three notches below normal.

Gaya was even colder on Tuesday morning with the minimum temperature dropping to 9.7º C, a departure of four notches from the normal around this time of the year.

The meteorologists have attributed the sudden drop in the mercury column to the chilly winds from the north and have forecast a further drop in the minimum temperature around the weekend. “Over the past couple of years, winter sets in around mid-December in the state but such conditions are already prevailing because of the strong northerly winds blowing from the Himalayan region,” said said Ashish Sen, director, Patna meteorological centre.

He added: “Comparatively lower temperature conditions are being observed at most places in north India. We expect the minimum temperature in Patna to remain below 13ºC for another couple of days.” Winter had arrived in Patna around the first week of December in the past two years and had peaked between December 20 and January 10.

This year, the minimum temperature is below the 13-degree mark, one of the meteorological criteria for the onset of winter, over the past three days because of which the morning and night hours are comparatively cooler.

Residents have also started feeling the chill. “My six-year-old daughter has to leave home at 6 in the morning for school. Accordingly, I am already making her wear an inner, a shirt and a full-sleeve sweater. Even at home, I make sure that she wears at least a half-sleeve sweater all the time,” said Arpita, a resident of Ashiana Nagar.

Adults, too, have started sporting woollens, and if not in the afternoon, then surely in the early morning and late evening hours.

“I have started using my woollen cap and inners under the jogging suit in the morning,” said Shailendra Kumar, a state government employee, who goes to Patna zoo for stroll daily.

Weathermen have claimed that it would still take a couple of days for the day temperature to start sliding.

“That depends on the impact of western disturbance on this region. All western disturbances have crossed through the upper latitudes. We are expecting that an impact of the western disturbance in Bihar around November 28 would drag down the maximum temperature,” said Sen.