At 18.2°C, city sees lowest March min temp since ’17
Times of India | 22 March 2024
Kolkata: The city spent the coldest March night in 17 years between Wednesday and Thursday as the minimum temperature dipped to 18.2° Celsius, recorded around 5am on Thursday. It was 18.7° Celsius on Wednesday.
The last time a March night got this cold was on March 17, 2007, when the minimum temperature was 17.4° Celsius. This Thursday became the second coldest March night since at least 2000.
But Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) director G K Das said, “The minimum temperature is likely to pick up from Friday when the chances of rain and clouds are likely to decline. By the weekend, the temperature is likely to go up”
The maximum temperature has been see-sawing the past two days. After dropping almost nine notches to 21.1°C on Wednesday, the maximum on Thursday jumped up to 26.8° C. According to the Alipore Met office forecast, the maximum is likely to rise another to 28°C by Friday. “In the absence of further rainfall, the maximum temperature may climb above 30° Celsius by the weekend,” added Das.
The withdrawal of thunderstorm activity from Thursday will lead to sunnier days and higher temperature, said Met office. Only 0.2 mm of rainfall was recorded at Alipore on Thursday, out of 26.5 mm rainfall over the month. While March typically gets 33mm to 35mm of rainfall, Kolkata is not likely to make up for its remaining normal rain cover in the next three to four days.