Mercury likely to start sliding down from Thursday, says MeT

Kolkata: The second spell of winter cold is not too far as the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore has said that the mercury will start sliding down from Thursday. On the weekend, the temperature may go 2-3 degrees below normal. The city’s lowest temperature may touch 13-14 degree Celsius, the MeT office said.

The city dwellers may feel colder weather from next Thursday-Friday however, till then, mercury is expected to remain unchanged. Both North Bengal and South Bengal districts have been witnessing dense fog in the early morning hours for the past few days. The MeT office had earlier said that mercury might go up in Kolkata and other South Bengal districts from the middle of last week. The lowest temperature in most of the South Bengal districts has been hovering around 16-17 degree Celsius in south Bengal districts. The mercury has shot up due to the impact of western disturbance and a low pressure.

According to the MeT office prediction, there will be dense fog in several districts of North Bengal — Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Coochbehar, Malda and North Dinajpur. A fog alert has been issued. Incidentally, the MeT office has already warned that dense fog will prevail at Gangasagar during Makar Sankranti, especially during the morning hours.

The visibility may go below 500 metre. There is however no prediction of rainfall in Gangasagar during Makar Sankranti. The city witnessed relatively hotter weather on New Year’s Day. December 1 in 2023 recorded the highest minimum temperature since 2015 and the second highest since 2000, following the heels of an unusually warm November when the mean minimum temperature was the highest in 13 years. The minimum temperature was registered at 20.1° Celsius that day and it ranked the second highest in the last 23 years, following 2015’s December 1 temperature of 23.3° Celsius.

Kolkata had recorded the highest temperature towards the end on December 28 with the mercury dropping at 20.7 degree Celsius which was 7 degrees above normal. It was recorded as the warmest day in the last 18 years.