A rain-soaked streeet in Bhubaneswar on Sunday afternoon. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 16: The chill is back with showers lashing the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar today. The odd complaint about the unseasonal rain notwithstanding, people welcomed the fall in the mercury.

“The temperature had begun to rise. As last week the city had witnessed a temperature of 38°C, the rain came as a big relief,” said Ajit Patnaik, a student.

Some people, however, found themselves in awkward situations because they were not expecting the rain now. “It has ruined my Sunday,” cribbed Mamta, a college student.

Officials at the meteorological centre here said that such rain occurred in winter due to the mixing of two kinds of winds. The sky was overcast since morning with black clouds hovering around. It was drizzling in the morning, but as the day progressed, the sun came out around noon raising the maximum day temperature of Bhubaneswar 31.4°C and of Cuttack to 26.0°C .

In the afternoon, the black clouds reappeared and it started raining heavily. While Bhubaneswar witnessed 8mm rain in the afternoon, Cuttack saw a heavy rainfall of 29mm.

Many other parts of the state, including Baripada and Balasore, also received heavy rainfall. “We were taken off guard by the heavy rain,” said Swagatika Mohapatra, a resident of Mancheswar.

People complained that many areas were waterlogged following the rain. Sources said part of the railway station in Bhubaneswar was flooded with rainwater for some time.

Sarat Sahu, director of the meteorological centre in Bhubaneswar, said this rain was a normal phenomenon. He said that the rain was expected to stop in the interior areas by tonight and the coastal areas by tomorrow.

“The night temperature will fall following the rain. If the temperatures falls below 10°C, cold wave condition may occur,” he said.