Chill knocks early: City shivers at 17.2°C as north winds grip Bengal
Telegraph | 13 November 2025
The mercury is going downward.
On Wednesday, the Met office recorded a minimum temperature of 17.2 degrees in Alipore, three degrees colder than the normal temperature for the second week of November.
The forecast is for a marginally colder Thursday.
A minimum temperature of 17 degrees in November is not rare, but it usually occurs later in the month, said a Met official (see chart).
Swathes of north India are already witnessing the onset of chill, with the minimum staying several degrees below normal.
Delhi recorded its first cold wave of the season on Monday, with the temperature dropping to 9.9 degrees Celsius at the Aya Nagar station.
Srinagar experienced a minimum of 1.6 degrees, Amritsar in Punjab shivered at 9.1 degrees, and Gaya in Bihar saw a minimum of 13 degrees Celsius.
The cold and dry winds from the north are having a free run from the mountains to the plains.
They are the usual agents of chill. The winds are reaching Bengal via Himachal, Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The winds have tightened their grip on Bengal, causing a drop in the temperature.
On Sunday, November 9, the temperature in Calcutta dropped below 20 degrees for the first time this season. The Met office recorded a minimum temperature of 19.2 degrees in Alipore. On Tuesday, the temperature dropped to 18.2 degrees.
In south Bengal, Birbhum was the coldest district. A Met station in Birbhum’s Sriniketan recorded a minimum of 13 degrees and Bankura recorded 14.1 degrees.
Children headed to school early in the morning are already wrapped in woollens. For elders, light jackets and sweatshirts have emerged from the cupboard.
“The usual minimum temperature for mid-November is 20 degrees. With very low moisture in the atmosphere, the cold and dry winds have no opposition. That is why the temperature is lower than usual,” said a Met official.
“There is an upper-air cyclonic circulation over the southwest and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal, and it extends up to 1.5km above mean sea level. However, it is too far from the Bengal coast to have any impact whatsoever,” said a Met official.
A blanket of fog, common in winter in Bengal, has not been witnessed so far this year. It will happen when the moisture level goes up.
“The minimum temperature will stay between 17 and 18 degrees till the weekend. Then, a marginal rise is likely because of a change in the wind pattern,” the Met official said.