123 Kolkata: Parts of the city may go behind a veil of fog early on Monday, even as the Met office predicted a temperature drop towards the end of the week. While Kolkata recorded a minimum temperature of 16.2°C on Sunday, it may hover around the 16°C-17°C mark till Tuesday. The mercury will start sliding from Jan 8 and may touch 14°C, which is the normal minimum temperature at this time of the year, said the Regional Meteorological Centre.
Various factors lead to fog in winter, said weather scientist Sourish Bandopadhyay. "Kolkata may experience moderate to dense fog on Monday. But it may not continue once the temperature starts sliding. The conditions are now ideal for fog — incursion of moisture from the sea, slow wind, and a stable atmosphere. But the conditions could change once the wind pattern changes and the northwesterly starts flowing into Gangetic Bengal," added Bandopadhyay.
The city remained partly cloudy on Saturday, too, even as the minimum temperature jumped a degree to 14.4°C. It could jump further by a couple of degrees and touch 16°C on Sunday, the Met office had said while predicting that the mercury will not drop below 15°C till at least Jan 7.
A western disturbance (WD) has yet again moved into the eastern and south Bengal plains, halting the flow of northwesterly winds.