At 4°, coldest night in Bhopal in decade

At 4°, coldest night in Bhopal in decade

Madiyahar In Damoh Coldest In State At 0.5°

Ankur.Sirothia@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:20.12.2021

Bhopal shivered through what was possibly its coldest night in 55 years as the mercury plunged to 4 degrees Celsius on Sunday — a 6-degree drop in 24 hours. There’s a cold wave warning for Bhopal and17 other districts.

The coldest night ever recorded in Bhopal was 3.1 degrees on December 11, 1966. Sunday was certainly the coldest in a decade as the earlier record was 4.9 degrees in December 2018. Bhopal, in the heart of the country and on the Tropic of Cancer, was nearly as cold as Shimla (3.6 degrees) this Sunday. Morning walkers all but vanished and the streets had never been as deserted on a Sunday evening since Covid lockdown was lifted. There were fewer bikers on the road as well.

Laxmi Sharma, 71, says Sunday’s bone-chilling cold reminded her of what it was like on that “freezing night” of December 11, 1966. “A bonfire was the only way to beat the chill 55 years ago. It was tough to survive the 3-degree cold without heaters and geysers. We sat around a bonfire outside our house. Everything felt like freezing,” she told TOI.

Night temp in city 7° below normal

Day temperature in Bhopal was recorded at 20.7 degrees, 6 degrees below normal, and the night temperature of 4 degrees was 7 degrees below normal.

Large parts of Madhya Pradesh recorded their lowest temperatures in a decade on Sunday. Some small towns reported temperatures close to freezing — Madiyahar (Damoh) 0.5°. Kalyanpur (Shahdol) 0.8° and Kurwai in Vidisha 1.0°.

In Gwalior, the mercury plummeted to 1.8 degrees, while Naogaon, Umaria and hill station Pachmarhi recorded 2 degrees. Avari in Ashok Nagar was 1.4°C and Rampur Sainik in Sidhi 1.5 degrees.

It was the coldest night in 10 years in Gwalior, which sees extremes of temperature in summer and winter. Gwalior’s lowest ever temperature was minus 0.4 degrees on December 26, 1961. Night temperatures dipped below 5 degrees in many parts of the state.

There will be no respite for the next few days. Warnings of severe cold wave, cold wave, severe cold day and ground frost persist for several places in the state. The chill may intensify till December 22 when a western disturbance could bring in some warmth, says the met office.

Officials of the meteorological department, Bhopal circle, said that snowfall in northern parts of the country and dry northerly cold winds have led to this dramatic plunge in temperatures.

The chill will add to the Monday blues. The day may be slightly warmer at 21 degrees Celsius and the minimum may be 6 degrees, but a 16kmph wind could intensify the chill factor.

There is a ‘severe cold wave’ warning in Gwalior and Chambal divisions and for Umaria, Chhatarpur, Sagar and Sehore districts.

A cold wave warning has been issued for Bhopal, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Vidisha, Raisen, Rewa, Satna, Seoni, Tikamgarh, Damoh, Niwari, Rajgarh, Dhar, Ratlam, Shajapur, Neemuch and Mandsaur.

Seoni, Dhar and Ujjain have been warned of a ‘severe cold day’. Umaria, Chhatarpur, Bhind, Morena, Sheopurkalan, Gwalior and Guna districts will see ground frost. TNN

The chill may intensify till December 22