The city is set to experience a drop in temperature from the first day of the New Year when the northwesterly winds are likely to blow through the city again, the Alipore Met office said on Wednesday.
An official in the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said easterly winds, which are keeping the city warm, will keep dominating till then.
The cold winds from the northwest, which bring chill to Kolkata during this time of the year, are not being able to reach south Bengal because of the strong easterly winds.
“The conditions are likely to remain like this till December 31,” said G.K. Das, director of the IMD, Kolkata.
“We are expecting a drop in temperatures from the evening of January 1. In the next two or three days, the minimum temperature may drop below 15 degrees. The maximum temperature, too, will drop,” Das said.
Whether the mercury will drop further can be said closer to the day.
The minimum temperature is recorded early in the morning and the maximum is recorded in the afternoon.
The maximum temperature on Wednesday was 26.6 degrees Celsius, one degree above normal. The minimum temperature was 17.6 degrees Celsius, four notches above normal.
Wednesday was so warm that many did not need to put on a warm layer. A woman who was meeting a friend on Park Street said neither of them required any woollens.
“I was wearing a jacket but had to take it off because it was really warm outside,” she said.
“It seems like winter has disappeared. We have hot days in summer and not so hot days during winter,” said a man.
According to the weatherman, the meteorological parameters are all favourable
for the current warm spell to continue till the end of the year.
“The northwesterly winds are stuck in Uttar Pradesh. They have not moved eastwards. The easterly winds are dominating so much that the northwesterly winds are unable to penetrate through the easterly winds,” said an IMD official.
The easterly winds are coming from over the Bay of Bengal and bringing in some amount of moisture. Unless the intensity of the easterly winds decrease and northwesterly winds reach Kolkata, the feeling of chill will not return.
Wednesday afternoon was not bright and sunny. It was hazy and gloomy for a long time during the day.
Das of the IMD said pollution could be responsible for the lack of sunlight. “The easterly winds did bring in some moisture but not so much that it would block the sunlight. There was no cloud formation,” he said.
The Met office forecast “mainly clear sky with mist/fog in the morning” on Thursday. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 26 and 17 degrees Celsius.
