The weather has been the talking point among many Kolkatans this Christmas because it has been so disturbingly warm.
The Alipore Met office has confirmed that Sunday was the warmest Christmas in atleast five years.
Monday was no different with the temperatures being the highest on the day after Christmas in at least five years, available records have shown.
The warm weather would continue on Tuesday also and the mercury will start dipping again from Wednesday, predicted the Met office.
The maximum temperature recorded on Sunday was 28.7 degrees Celsius, two degrees above normal. The minimum temperature recorded on Sunday was 17.2 degrees Celsius, three degrees above normal.
The maximum and minimum temperatures recorded on Christmas Day last year were 25.8 degrees Celsius and 14.4 degrees Celsius. In the last five years, the maximum temperature never reached 16 degrees Celcius and the minimum temperature went above 14 degrees only once.
“Sunday was the warmest Christmas in at least five years,” said G.K. Das, the director of the India Meteorological Department, Kolkata.
Moisture-laden southwesterly winds that are arriving over Kolkata instead of cold northwesterly winds, which are the usual winds to arrive during this time of the year, have caused the rise in temperature. Das said that moisture-laden winds kill the cold.
The southwesterly winds are arriving over Kolkata owing to the formation of a high-pressure zone near the West Bengal-Odisha coast.
“The northwesterly winds that blow during this time of the year make the weather cold, but this time southeasterly winds are blowing into Kolkata for the last few days, instead of the northwesterly winds. The southwesterly winds are carrying a lot of moisture, as a result of which the weather in Kolkata has remained warm,” added Das.
“A high-pressure zone on the Bay of Bengal, near the Bengal-Odisha coast, has formed which is sending the moisture-laden winds toward Kolkata,” said an official of the Met office.
A Salt Lake resident, who visited Park Street on Christmas afternoon, said he had take off his jacket as he started to sweat. Most people were wearing light clothes. “Noone wore any woollens. Some people were wearing their summer jackets,” said the Salt Lake resident.
Many turned up in T-shirts at the Christmas lunch at some of the city’s top clubs.
The maximum temperature recorded on Monday —the day after Christmas — was 28.9 degrees Celsius, three degrees above normal. The maximum temperature on December 26, 2021, was 26.4 degrees, the second highest in the last five years.
A south Kolkata resident said that she did not require to put on any warm clothes on Monday either.
“I was at home all day, but I did not need to put on any warm clothes. When I stepped out in the evening, I put on a jeans jacket. That was comfortable,” she said.
Das said Tuesday would also remain warm, but the temperature would start sliding again from Wednesday.
The Met office said that Tuesday maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to remain around 29 degree Celsius and 20 degree Celsius.
Cooler weather is expected from Wednesday as the northwesterly winds are expected to reach Kolkata again from Wednesday, he added.