Winter easing in Kolkata: Record-breaking cold ends; day and night temperatures may rise today, says Met

KOLLKATA: Both maximum and minimum temperatures on Wednesday rose above the normal mark in Kolkata after 37 days, marking the beginning of the end of winter 202526, which saw many record breaking chilly days. From now, both days and nights are expected to get warmer.

“Climatologically, it is that time of the year when the mercury starts rising gradually. Unless an intense system like a strong western disturbance over northwestern and northern regions develops, affecting our region, we can expect the cold feeling to cease gradually, ushering in warmer days and nights,” said meteorologist HR Biswas, head of Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.

The minimum temperature, after a below-normal run for nine days on the trot, rose to 15.4 degrees on Wednesday, breaching the normal mark by 1.3 degrees. The maximum temperature, which remained below normal for a record-breaking 35 days before inching past the normal mark with 26.4 degrees on Tuesday, rose further to 26.8 degrees on Wednesday, a full notch above normal.

The cold feeling this winter was sustained, with the mercury starting to dip below the normal mark right from the first week of Dec. The chill factor kept multiplying towards end Dec, with the city recording its chilliest New Year Eve in a decade when the mercury plunged to 11 degrees, which was also the second lowest for Dec in 13 years.

In Jan, the minimum temperature plunged to the month’s lowest in 13 years on Jan 6, when the mercury dipped to 10.2 degrees. The corresponding maximum temperature on the day, at 18 degrees, was also the lowest for the month in at least a decade. In the 21 days of this month, the minimum temperature crossed the normal mark only on three days.

Met officials cited the absence of a major system like a low-pressure area or western disturbance for the sustained cold spell this winter. Both day and night temperatures are expected to rise slightly on Thursday and then fall over the in the next two days before rising gradually again.

Met officials said this is due to a weak northwesterly wind reaching the city; a feeble western disturbance over northwestern India has retarded the speed of this dry and chill-bearing wind system.

In case an intense western disturbance affects central, northern, or north-western India in the coming days, temperatures in Bengal will slide again. “While there is no such strong disturbance at present, we have seen such systems developing even in the first and second week of Feb, causing a dip in temperature in our region,” Biswas said.