8.5°C in Bengaluru Urban dist? Cold wave and fog tighten their grip in festive season; holiday travel disrupted | Bengaluru News
BENGALURU: As Karnataka readies for Christmas and New Year celebrations, winter has tightened its grip across the state. Despite variations in minimum temperature readings from KSNDMC and IMD, the cold is palpable, with dense early-morning fog reducing visibility and disrupting travel in parts of Bengaluru and its nearby districts.“Clear skies will continue over Bengaluru, with a dense blanket of fog and mist during mornings. While the city’s outskirts with thick vegetation are likely to record minimum temperatures below 10°C, areas in and around the central business district will see minimum temperatures between 12°C and 13°C,” an IMD scientist noted.According to KSNDMC data, Bengaluru Urban and Rural recorded minimum temperatures of 8.5°C and 8.7°C, respectively.In contrast, the IMD observatory on Palace Road reported a minimum of 14.4°C for Bengaluru, while HAL airport station recorded 14.1°C.However, there was unanimity between meteorologists from both the agencies that minimum temperatures had dipped 2-3°C below normal and was likely to fall by another one or two degrees during the weekend, with the chill expected to persist till month-end.Meanwhile, foggy conditions have already begun affecting routine life and holiday travel in southern interior districts. In Bengaluru Rural, dense fog between 4am and 9.30am has made driving difficult on several state and national highways, including NH-648, NH-48 and Yelahanka-Gauribidanur state highway.The cold has intensified across the state, with minimum temperatures plunging sharply in several districts, making this one of the coldest spells of the season.The sharpest dip has been recorded in north-interior Karnataka, where early mornings have turned biting cold. KSNDMC data show that Bidar recorded the lowest minimum temperature at 5.3°C Friday night, followed by Belagavi at 5.9°C and Dharwad at 6.4°C.Districts such as Vijayanagara, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Gadag, Haveri and Kalaburagi reported minimum temperatures between 6.5°C and 8°C, indicating that the cold spell is widespread rather than confined to a few pockets.
