As temp dips to 18°C, Kolkata sees coldest day in the first half of Nov in 10 years
Times of India | 12 November 2025
Kolkata: The mercury dipped further in Kolkata on Tuesday. With the minimum temperature sliding to the 18-degree mark, it was the lowest for Nov 11 in the past decade, along with the maximum temperature of 28.6°C, the lowest for the day during the decade.
The Met office sees the possibility of the temperature dipping slightly further as there is no major weather system at present that would disrupt the inflow of the dry northwesterly wind for now.
The only Nov 11 in a decade, when the minimum temperature dipped below 20 degrees, was in 2018 and 2016. But at 19.1°C and 19.6°C respectively, it was higher than the 18.2°C recorded by Alipore Met office on Tuesday, which was three notches below the normal mark.
The maximum temperature at 28.6° C also stayed below the normal mark for the fifth consecutive day. It was a dip from Monday's 29.1°C.
While this early sub-20 dip has raised hope for a colder winter in the city this year, the Met officials said this was not an indication as the cold factor in the city depends on various factors. "Any change in wind pattern due to a big weather system or cloudiness could disrupt the mercury fall.
And hence, an early sub-20 plunge does not have a one-to-one relation with a more intense winter ahead," said Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata head HR Biswas.
The Met officials said that the cold conditions in Kolkata and the rest of South Bengal depend on factors like the speed of the dry and chill-bearing northwesterly wind and the cold wave conditions in parts of central and northern India from where this wind system breezes in.
Meteorologists said that even as this wind system is flowing into the city at present, its pace is only steady, and the city has to wait for the chill.
The minimum temperature dipped below 20°C for the first time this winter on Sunday when the city recorded 19.2°C, ushering in the ‘nip in air' feel in Kolkata. In the past one and a half decades, the lowest Nov temperature dipped as low as the 14-degree mark thrice — in 2012, 2014, and 2017 — towards the month-end week.
In 2024, it was 17.2°C recorded on Nov 26.
On Tuesday, the lowest minimum temperature in the plains of Bengal was 14.2°C recorded at Suri, while for the hill region, it was 8°C in Darjeeling. Even as a cyclonic circulation persists over the central Bay of Bengal at present, this system will dissipate in the seas and have no bearing on the land. "At present, there is no weather system that can disrupt the incoming dry northwesterly wind. While we do not expect a major mercury dip for now, it could go down slightly during the next five days," added Biswas.