Fog lifts early, sun warms day to 22°, easing Kolkata’s winter chill
Telegraph | 8 January 2026
The minimum temperature in the city was 10.3° Celsius on Wednesday, almost identical to the previous day’s 10.2°, and still well below normal.
Dum Dum recorded a minimum of 9.8°, while Barrackpore was colder at 9°.
Yet many Calcuttans felt that the sting in the wind was less sharp than it had been on Tuesday. Wednesday was chilly, but the cold did not feel as piercing.
The Met office attributed the difference in how the two days felt to a single factor.
“On Wednesday, the fog cleared much earlier than it did on Tuesday. The process started around 8am and by 9.30am the sun was bright. The rest of the day was sunny. The rise in solar insulation pushed the maximum temperature up,” a Met official said.
“There was not much difference in the intensity of the wind on Tuesday and Wednesday. But the sunlight made the difference in how people felt.”
From 18° on Tuesday, the maximum temperature rose to 22° on Wednesday. Though still three degrees below normal, the day felt more bearable, even pleasant.
The Met has forecast a minimum of around 11° for Calcutta on Thursday, with the maximum likely to remain 22°. The feeling of chill, however, is expected to persist.
Telling difference
The minimum temperature is usually recorded around sunrise. On Tuesday, the low of 10.2° was logged between 6am and 6.30am. A layer of fog lingered for hours, leaving even the afternoon gloomy. Around noon, the temperature had hovered near 14°.
On Wednesday, the minimum of 10.3° was recorded around 6.30am. By noon, the temperature had climbed to around 19°.
“Dense fog, reducing visibility below 50 metres, was reported from Dum Dum on Wednesday morning. Moderate fog was reported from Alipore. But the fog cleared much earlier because of increased wind speed in the lower levels of the atmosphere. That is why the temperature rose much earlier than it did on Tuesday,” said H.R. Biswas, head of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore.
In the plains, Sriniketan in Birbhum recorded a low of 6.6° on Wednesday.
The mercury stayed below 10° Celsius in several other places in the districts. In the hills, Darjeeling recorded a minimum of 1.4° Celsius.
Chill to stay
“Strong northwesterly/northerly winds at lower tropospheric levels are likely to prevail over Bengal. Cold and dry weather is likely for five-six days,” said a Met bulletin issued on Wednesday.
On Thursday, dense fog reducing visibility to 50-199 metres is likely in the morning in Birbhum, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Nadia, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore districts.
Shallow to moderate fog is expected over south Bengal for the next three days, from Friday to Sunday.
North Bengal is also likely to continue experiencing dense fog, the bulletin said.
Cold day conditions are likely to persist in North and South 24-Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad and Hooghly.
“In Calcutta, the minimum temperature is unlikely to go past 12-13° over the next seven days. The daytime temperature may rise for a couple of days before sliding again because of persistent fog. The chill quotient will stay for now,” Biswas said.
Sea system
A low-pressure area over the deep sea has intensified into a depression, the Met office said. Around 8.30am on Wednesday, it was located about 800km from the Sri Lanka coast and 1,300km from Chennai. The system will intensify into a deep depression but will have no impact on Bengal, the Met office said.