The minimum temperature in the city slid to 11° Celsius on the last day of 2025, marking the coldest year-ender in over a decade.
Dum Dum recorded a low of 10° Celsius, while Sriniketan in Bolpur shivered at 6.5°. Several other areas in Birbhum, Bankura, and West Burdwan registered temperatures below 10°. Darjeeling was the coldest place in Bengal, with a minimum of 4°.
January 1 is expected to remain cold, with the minimum and maximum forecasted around 12° and 22°, respectively. The following days are likely to be slightly warmer.
The minimum on Tuesday had been 12.6°, and the Met office had predicted Wednesday’s minimum would be between 12° and 13°. However, it fell further because the fog was less persistent than in the previous days, explained a Met official.
“The moisture content went down. As conditions became drier, the northwesterly winds near the surface strengthened. With the sun appearing earlier than on Monday and Tuesday, the day also warmed up,” said H.R. Biswas, head of the weather section at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore. Despite this, the maximum rose only marginally, from 19.6° on Tuesday to 20.2° on Wednesday, still five degrees below normal.
Biswas added that the cold and dry northwesterly winds are expected to weaken in the New Year.
A western disturbance is active in northwestern India. As it moves from west to east, the wind pattern will change. The northwesterly winds will lose some steam. In the first week of January, the minimum may rise to 15° and the maximum to 24°,” Biswas said.
In Calcutta, winter usually doesn’t mean an uninterrupted chill. The season alternates between cold spells caused by northwesterly winds and warmer periods brought by western disturbances.
A western disturbance is a storm originating in the Mediterranean that enters India via Pakistan, bringing sudden winter rain as it moves eastward.
Several western disturbances formed this year, but none were very active and had minimal impact in Bengal, allowing cold spells from the northwesterly winds to dominate the season.