Nalia on the western most tip of the country remained the coldest place in the state for the second consecutive day despite a rise in temperature from 2.2 degrees Celsius on Monday to 2.9 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. Met department officials said this weather condition might continue in Kutch for the next two to three days that is till the Western disturbances remained.

The older people in the region said the weather is the coldest they have experienced in the past 10 to 15 years. Nalia has been the worst hit, for not only has it reported the season's first death from cold, but its fish catch has also dwindled.

"The fishermen who have come from every coast of the state for fishing at this fish-rich fishing port of Jaukhau do not find fish stock in the upper layers of the sea, which has now turned colder in the current cold wave. We used to dispatch four to five truckloads of fish to Mumbai everyday, but now we hardly get a truckload of the sea produce," said Satar Chauhan, secretary of the Jakhau Fish Merchants' Association.

The residents of the district headquarter of Bhuj often wonder as to why the city records higher temperature even when they feel the weather is colder than Nalia.

"We have been living at Nalia for ages. No doubt we record the lowest temperature in the entire state in winter. But sometimes when I come to Bhuj for any work, I find the city colder than Nalia. The same was my experience during my visit last week," Nalia Sarpanch Thakar said.

Bipin Thackar, a senior physician, said that temperature may vary from place to place, but there should not be such a vast variation in cold between two places just 90 km from each other. "If Nalia recorded 2.2 degrees Celsius on Monday, the lowest of the past decade in the state, Bhuj's temperature was reported to be 9.5 degrees Celsius the same day, even as the entire city shivered as did Nalia. There could be a difference of two to three degrees, but not of seven degrees," he said, adding that this had been experienced of late.