At 13.6oC, Kolkata shivers on 2018's coldest day yet

Kolkata: The mercury dropped further on Friday making it the coldest day of the season so far with the lowest temperature remaining around 13.6 degree Celsius in the city which is one degree below the normal.

The regional Meteorological department at Alipore predicted that the temperature may drop further in the next few days and the city dwellers are expected to feel the winter chill during Christmas.

According to the weather office, the city and its adjoining areas will remain misty during morning and the sky will be clear in the later half of the day.

As the level of water-vapour is high in the city, the air is filled with mist especially in the morning hours. According to the weather expert, the temperature will drop once the vapour evaporates.

A senior official of the Alipore MeT office said that the city dwellers will feel the winter chill during Christmas. The mercury has already gone down by a few notches in the last couple of days. The temperature of the city and its adjoining areas may touch 11 degree Celsius by the end of this month.

Due to the low pressure trough formed over the Bay of Bengal and a cyclonic storm that happened last week, the normal flow of the winter chill had been interrupted.

After the low pressure trough got cleared, the mercury started plunging.

The uninterrupted flow of the north-westerly also brought in the chill into the South Bengal districts, thereby pushing down the mercury by few notches. It may be mentioned here that on December 9 the city recorded the coldest day of the season when the temperature touched 13.7 degree Celsius.

Temperature dropped to 3.2 degree Celsius in Darjeeling while other North Bengal districts like Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, South Dinajpur, Malda recorded 13.2, 10.4, 14, 12.6 degree Celsius respectively. The mercury remained at 14 degree Celsius in Murshidabad, 11.8 degree Celsius in Bankura, 12.5 in Hooghly, 11.7 in West Burdwan, 13 degree Celsius in East Burdwan and 11.4 degree in South 24-Parganas.

According to the weather office there may be a marginal rise and fall in the temperature in the city and in the districts as well as it is quite normal during the winter season.