Cold wave grips Manipur
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Sobhapati Samom

Imphal, December 14 2011: Manipur is in the grip of a cold wave as the mercury plunged to 3.2 degree Celsius in the state capital today.

The maximum temperature recorded was 22.9 degree, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Imphal sources said.

The minimum temperature of the volatile state which was hovering around 10 degree Celsius on an average this month, has been gradually going down since Friday, recording 8.4 degree Celsius.

Besides the state capital, severe cold wave conditions also prevailed in other hill district headquarters of the state as Chandel recorded 4.3 degree Celsius today, weather data observer of the ICAR, Imphal informed.

Similarly, hilly Tamenglong district headquarter, around 155 km west of here witnessed unusual cold since the last few days.

"We've been experiencing chilly wind in the night forcing us to stay indoors," says D Kamei,a resident of Tamenglong on phone.

"There are also reports of snow fall in some parts of the town two days back" .

However, Tamenglong on record has a minimum temperature of just 6.4 degree Celsius today against yesterday's 6.5.Churachandpur and Ukhrul also experienced similar cold waves.

"Cold wave conditions prevailed in some parts of west Madhya Pradesh and at isolated places in Assam & Meghalaya, Nagaland-Manipur-Mizoram-Tripura, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal & Sikkim and west Uttar Pradesh",reports Indian Meteorological Department in their website today.

"Cold day conditions also prevailed at isolated places in east Uttar Pradesh" .

So far January 21 with a minimum temperature of 2 degree Celsius is the coldest day of the current year against last year's 2.3 degree Celsius as per Meteorological Office Imphal records on January 13 .

"Even though coldest day of the year 2010 was in January, people feel colder this fortnight because fog has remained for longer period",feels weather report observers in Imphal.

The cold wave has forced households in Manipur to burn a huge amount of charcoal for their 'meiphu' (local heater) .

Earlier, households used to have a fireplace called Phung-ga to keep the house warm.

But such fireplaces have nowadays given way to electrical appliances.

Interestingly, the irregular power supply has forced many people to go back to charcoal to keep themselves warm despite its soaring prices.

With cold wave gripping the State over the last few days besides recently concluded prolonged blockade, demand for charcoal has suddenly increased.

"One bag of charcoal weighing 50 kg costs between Rs 450 to 500 today", an Imphalite felt.

"Last season the price was around Rs 360 to Rs 380" .

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