Bhubaneswar: The minimum temperature fell by 3.4°C in Odisha capital as cloud cover lifted in the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Monday.
The mercury dropped to 12.3°C in Bhubaneswar, a day after the city witnessed a 6.5°C spike in the minimum temperature to record a low of 15.7°C. Similarly, Cuttack recorded 11.4°C as against 14.4°C the previous day.
G Udayagiri in Kandhamal was the coldest place in the state at 4.8°C, followed by Phulbani, the district headquarters of Kandhamal, at 6.8°C and Rourkela at 6.7°C. Daringbadi, also in Kandhamal, and Jharsuguda recorded 7°C each. The other places where mercury plummeted below 10 include Kirei in Sundargarh at 8.8°C, Nabarangpur and Sundargarh at 9°C each, Chiplima in Sambalpur at 9.4°C and Angul at 9.6°C.
Jharsuguda witnessed the sharpest drop of 5.1°C from normal followed by Angul (-4.4°C), Cuttack (-3°C) and Bhubaneswar (-2.9°C).
The India Meteorolog
ical Department (IMD) has warned of cold wave conditions in districts of Jharsuguda, Angul and Boudh till January 14 morning. Cold wave conditions may continue to prevail in isolated pockets of Jharsuguda,
Sundargarh, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Khurda, Angul, Dhenkanal, Kendrapada and Boudh districts during the subsequent 24 hours. There will be no large change in the minimum temperature during the next 4-5 days, it added.
Interestingly, the state capital had witnessed intense chill last week with the minimum temperature dipping as low as 9.2°C on January 10 morning, making it the coldest night in 22 years. The mercury had plunged to 10.2°C in the city on January 7 and 9.4°C during the two subsequent days (January 8-9). Similarly, Cuttack experienced its coldest night in the past 40 years on January 9 morning at 8.6°C. The Millennium City had recorded 9°C on January 8.
On January 9 morning, Rourkela recorded its all-time lowest minimum temperature of 3.6°C. It was also the was the fourth coldest city in the plains across the country, after Pantnagar in Uttarakhand, which recorded 2.5°C, Daltonganj in Jharkhand 3.2°C and Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh 3.4°C. Jharsuguda also experienced its chilliest night in 72 years with mercury touching 4.6°C, coming just 48 hours after it had already shattered its all-time low record.