The state capital got into Christmas mode as the mercury plunged to 11.2 °C on Monday, but the minimum temperature is set to slide further on Tuesday, owing to biting northwesterly winds.

However, the cold spell will get a break from Wednesday and Christmas is tipped to be slightly warmer, said a Met official.
On Monday, the minimum temperature was four notches below normal. It was also the coldest day in Calcutta since December 28, 2019, when the minimum temperature was 11.1 °C, according to the Met data.

The readings at the Met office in Alipore go into the record books as the “official” temperature of Calcutta. But the fringe areas, from Kamarhati in the north to Narendrapur in the south, are usually colder than Alipore by “around half a degree Celsius”, said a Met official.

Many districts were colder, with the mercury plummeting to the 7-degree range, prompting the Met office to declare “cold wave conditions”.
A deviation of around five degrees from the normal prompts the Met office to declare a cold wave. The minimum temperature is expected to go up from Wednesday and is likely to be in the range of 13-14 °C during Christmas.

“A Western Disturbance is likely to hit Kashmir over the next 48 hours. As a result, northwesterly winds will become weaker,” said G.K. Das, director, India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.

“A cyclonic circulation is brewing over Uttar Pradesh. As a result, Wednesday is likely to be partially cloudy in Calcutta. The sky will eventually clear before Christmas. But the minimum temperature is likely to remain over 13 °C during Christmas,” he added.

Winter in Calcutta is usually marked by multiple spells of chill. The current spell, the first this season that started a week ago, is set to end after Tuesday.
But on Monday, the intensity of the northwesterly winds had reached their peak.

“I wore a pullover under my jacket, but still the ride on Parama in the morning was freezing,” said Arijit Banik, who rode his bike from his Behala home to his Salt Lake office.
At 22.4 °C, the maximum temperature was also four notches below normal.

“The minimum temperature in Srinagar was around -6 °C on Monday. It was around 3.2 °C in Delhi and 4.1 °C in Gaya (Bihar). That explains the sharp slide in Calcutta,” said a Met official.

Calcutta seems to be making the most of the Christmas weather. On Monday evening, Park Street looked resplendent under a canopy of lights, put up in the run-up to the Christmas carnival, and people wrapped up in woollens clicked pictures.

Cold wave conditions were prevailing in the districts of south Bengal, the Met office said. In Santiniketan, the mercury dipped to 7.1 °C.
The minimum temperatures were 7.5 °C and 7.6 °C in Purulia and Panagarh respectively.

The sharp slide in mercury led the district administrations to ask its block offices to reach out to the poor with blankets and warm clothes. “We have started distributing blankets and warm clothes to the poor in remote pockets of the districts,” said Rahul Majumdar, the district magistrate of Purulia.