The border town of Naliya in Kutch continued to remain the coldest in the state at 0.4 degrees Celsius. "The drinking water in our house has frozen. We need to boil the ice to make it fit for drinking and other purposes," said Sureshbhai Ramajiyani, a resident of Naliya. "We have never experienced such cold before, as we have been experiencing for the last two days, which has now turned for the worse since Thursday. When I went to my hotel this morning, I found the water pipelines cracked on account of the water freezing to ice," said Sanjay Thacker, a hotel owner at Nalia.

Nalia Sarpanch Satish Thackar said the lowest recorded temperature here was 0.8 degrees some 15 years ago. He said though there was no MET office here then, old timers recall experiencing temperatures going down close to freezing point five decades ago.

He said life in Nalia and the taluka villages had been far from normal in the past one and a half months. The worst affected were the poor and the daily wage earners and stray animals. The cold has also taken a toll on milk production and fishing activity, he said. Jakhau, which is known for its good catch every season, has reported a record low this time because of the ceaseless cold wave.

The situation has only been a little better at Rajkot and Amreli. The minimum recorded at Rajkot was 5.4 degrees Celsius, the lowest in the past five decades. The city also recorded 66 per cent humidity with winds blowing at 15 kmph.

In 2005, Rajkot recorded the lowest temperature of 5.8 degrees, the lowest in the past 20 years, which was followed by 5.5 degrees last month.

Amreli remained the second coolest place at 5.4 degree Celsius minimum temperature. The wind speed was recorded at 10 kmph and humidity levels at 63 per cent.

Bhuj city in Kutch district witnessed a drop of 2.4 degrees in the last 24 hours. On Thursday, the city recorded 6.1 degree Celsius against 8.5 recorded on Wednesday. The desert city had humidity levels of 36 per cent, with winds blowing at 10 kmph. But the residents of Bhuj are not willing to accept the MET figures, which they say are giving erroneous readings.

"If the people of Nalia, which is 90 km from here felt the same cold intensity as us, when we had almost the same temperature of 8.3 and 8.5 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, how is it possible that the temperature in Bhuj was 6.1 degree Celsius on Thursday and 0.4 in Nalia, the same day. There is some error in the temperature readings at the Bhuj MET office. In fact, Bhuj residents who have in the past witnessed minus temperatures, do not accept the figure churned out by the Bhuj MET office these days," said noted physician Dr Bipin Thackar.

While MET officials say the fact that their new office is a densely populated area which affects temperature reading by 7-8 degrees Celsius, citizens say that 90 km is not such a huge distance to account for such staggering difference in temperature. At the most it can be one to two degrees Celsius. "When there was no MET office at Nalia, only Bhuj recorded the lowest temperature in the state," said a citizen.

Junagadh city stayed relatively warm with the minimum temperatures recorded at 10.4 degrees Celsius. The humidity was recorded at 56 per cent with wind speeds at 8.8 kmph.

But too beggars have been reported dead due to the extreme cold at Talala and Kodinar town.

The biting cold has also affected tourist inflow to Junagadh and Somnath, and fishing activities at Veraval Mangrol and Porbander ports.

Veraval fishing boat association's office bearer Bachubhai Vasta, said chilling winds have adversely affected fishing activities, as fishes submerge deep within the water during extreme cold, making catches difficult.

Porbander boat association president Jivan Jungi said, hundreds of fishing boats have been anchored at the seashore in the absence of enough catch. In addition to the cold, strong winds and rough seas have also made fishing dangerous now. Some 200 boats that ventured out into the sea last week are yet to come back, he said.

Even though the timings for the pre-primary and primary schools in Bhuj and Rajkot have been re-scheduled late by an hour, attendance still remained thin.