Kolkata: While winter is bowing out of the city with a delayed seasonal transition, meteorologists said the season was warmer than normal with the highest seasonal minimum temperature days since 2009.
Between Dec and Feb, the minimum temperature fell to its lowest of 11.8° Celsius in the last week of January, a notch above the lowest of last year. In the last two decades the minimum temperature fell below 11.8° Celsius every winter except for 2009 when the highest minimum was 12.9° Celsius and in 2005 when it was 12.8° Celsius.
In the first week of December, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that this winter would be warmer than usual on account of the El Niño effect in the Pacific Ocean. “Winter 2023 to 2024 has been warmer than normal if we consider that the temperature dip has been less compared to most other years,” said Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) director G K Das. In the first two weeks of Jan, peak-winter time, frequent weak westerlies were preventing a significant temperature slide.
In the first two weeks of Feb, the transition from winter has also been relatively slow. Typically, the maximum temperature touches 30° Celsius within this two-week window. In last two decades, only Feb 2024 did not have a single day in its first two weeks where the maximum temperature climbed above 30° Celsius. On Thursday, the maximum reached its highest of the year so far at 29° Celsius. Despite the delay, weather office said that the maximum can climb above 30° Celsius by the weekend, while the minimum may also spike two notches.
In early December, IMD also issued a forecast that winter may feature fewer cold waves than normal. While 14° Celsius is considered normal Jan temperature, 2024 only saw four days where temperature was below 13°C, compared to the five to 19 such days experienced in most years. The minimum fell below 15°C only twice this month. While Feb typically receives above 22 mm of rain in Kolkata, this year, the city received only about 6.2 mm till Wednesday.
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