12 Kolkata: With the steady incursion of the chill-bearing northerly wind, the minimum temperature in city's fringes dropped below the 15°C-mark on Wednesday. In Dum Dum, the minimum temperature was recorded at 14.3°C. The same slipped to 13.5°C in Howrah. However, in Kolkata, the minimum temperature remained above 15°C. But the Met department predicted that the northerly wind might drag the mercury below 15°C-mark in Kolkata by Thursday.
"The northerly wind already arrived, and we can expect the minimum temperature in Kolkata to dip as low as 14°C by Thursday. Along with Kolkata, some other southern districts will also see the mercury dipping by two to three degrees in the next 24 hours," said HR Biswas, head of the weather section at Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata.
A cyclonic circulation over neighbouring Bangladesh, along with a passing western disturbance, pushed up cloud formation last week, increasing the night temperature. The Met officials said the city was now free from the spell of the twin weather systems, clearing the deck for the mercury to start plummeting again.
While the minimum temperature dipped to the season's lowest at 15.7°C last Saturday, it started rising from the next day to reach 18.2°C-mark on Monday. At 16.2°C on Tuesday, the minimum temperature in Kolkata was 0.4 degrees below the normal mark. In Salt Lake, the Met office recorded 15.6°C on Tuesday.
"Once the temperature dips by Thursday, we expect no further significant change for at least six to seven days, during which the minimum tempera-ture in Kolkata is likely to remain between 13°C and 14°C," said Biswas.
Darjeeling froze at 4.2°C. The weather office at a higher elevation in Darjeeling recorded 1.2°C on Tuesday. The lowest minimum temperature in the plains of south Bengal was 11.8°C in Birbhum's Sriniketan.
In the past six years, the mercury in Kolkata dipped lowest to 10°C, only once in Dec and around the 11°C in three years. In Dec 2023 and 2022, the lowest was 13.7°C and 13.2°C, respectively.
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