At 13.2°C, Kolkata gets second coldest day this winter
Times of India | 3 January 2025
12 Kolkata: With the mercury dropping to 13.2˚C, the city experienced its second coldest day of this winter on Thursday. At a notch below the normal, this was the first time in 17 days that the minimum temperature slipped below the normal mark.
While the Met office expects the cold run to continue on Friday, the mercury is likely to start rising Saturday onwards. Met officials said the uninterrupted flow of the chill-bearing northwesterly wind cleared the way for the mercury to dip.
The lowest temperature the city recorded this winter was 12.5˚C on Dec 15. While the mercury rose to 13.8˚C the next day, it remained below the normal mark until Dec 17. Since then, the minimum temperature remained above the normal mark consistently before it returned to the normal mark on Wednesday.
Mercury nosedived from 17.6˚C on Tuesday to 14.2˚C on Wednesday, a three-notch straight dip, and further declined on Thursday. A clear sky and cold northwesterly wind also pushed down the maximum temperature. At 21.6˚C, it was 3.5 notches below the mark.
"But there will be a rising tendency of the mercury from Saturday, reaching 16 to 17˚C again in the next two to three days," said HR Biswas, head of the weather section at Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata. The minimum and maximum temperatures are likely to hover around the 13˚C and 22˚C marks respectively on Friday. Met officials said a western disturbance is likely to develop over the northwestern region by the weekend. Even though this system will not have any direct impact in this region in terms of rain, it will again block the path of the dry and cold northwesterly wind. "Once this system passes, the cold northwesterly winds will start reaching our region. The mercury will start dipping again," added Biswas. A western disturbance is an extratropical storm that originates from the Mediterranean region and is capable of bringing winter rain to the northwestern part of India. Two back-to-back such systems earlier pushed up the mercury in Kolkata.