Light showers on Friday across Nagaland brought down Mercury levels to herald the setting of winter chill from November to January. In Kohima, the Mercury came down to 14⁰C from 18⁰C on Thursday; while in Dimapur it came down to 19⁰C from 25⁰C on Thursday.
People scampered home preferring to remain indoors and warm up to fireside or heaters.
Showers continued well into the night as the chill hit across the state,
In Kohima, the cloud cover on Friday remained at 93% coupled with wind gusts of 17 km/h rendering the capital a gloomy look even as few people ventured to their work braving the uneasing weather.
Meanwhile the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA), Home Department has issued weather updates with regard to Cyclone Midhili for the coming days. The release issued by commissioner & secretary, Lhouchalie Viya, IAS, advised the DDMAS and other line departments to keep close watch, monitor the situation in their areas and take appropriate precautionary measures to attend to any emergencies to save lives and properties during this period.
NSDMA also urged upon the public to be vigilant during this period from lightning, gusty winds and thunderstorms. It also requested people not to shelter under large trees or near the river banks to prevent unnecessary risk to life from lightning and flash flood.
As per the latest update by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Deep Depression over northwest Bay of Bengal moved further north-northeastwards at a speed of 20 km/h, intensifying into the Cyclonic Storm ‘Midhili’ on Friday morning.
Cyclone Midhili is set to trigger widespread light to moderate rains along with isolated heavy showers (64.5 mm-115.5 mm) across coastal West Bengal, south Assam, east Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during the next 24-48 hours. Mizoram and Tripura may also be in for isolated extremely heavy downpours (more than 204.5 mm) for the next 24 hours.
The average temperature in the last decade during this time of the year has been at 28 and 16 degrees while in the past year it was at 29 and 18 degrees during the day and night time respectively. Police sources informed that no road mishap was reported at the time of filing this report.