Winter heats up at last

AHMEDABAD: Winter seems to have finally dawned on the city as people brought out their woollens to tackle the sudden dip in the temperature. City recorded minimum temperature of 10.3 degrees Celsius, three-degree drop from the normal. Day temperature too dropped to 26.9 degrees, three degrees below normal.
State capital Gandhinagar recorded eight degrees in the night.Similar temperatures were recorded in Deesa in Banaskantha and Amreli. Naliya recorded minimum temperature of 8.6 degrees.
Weather officials said that cold wave conditions would prevail in Saurashtra and south Gujarat for the next 36 hours covering Sunday. The winds which were so far north-westerly have become northerly, a shift which brings a drop in the temperature. Officials had said earlier that the temperature would decline further this month.
"I finally pulled out the cardigan I had brought from the Tibetan market a month ago anticipating a cold winter. With the sudden dip in mercury, I could finally use my woollen", said Pratima Jadeja, a human resource executive in Vastrapur.
People have embarked on a health trip with choicest of green vegetables available in the market. People are also tanking up health shots of amla juice, beetroot juice and spinach-turmeric juice.
There has been a deluge of morning walkers in the parks at the riverfront where there is free entry till 8 am. "With the temperature dropping, one can hit the parks even late in the morning as it is pleasantly cold then. Since it is less cumbersome to walk in the winter due to less perspiration, there has been a rise in the number of morning walkers", says Smita Patel, a regular morning walker.