Alipore: The city woke up to its coldest morning in five years on Friday with the mercury plunging to 11.1 degrees Celsius.

If the weather department's prediction proves correct, the Celsius will drop further to around 10.5 on Saturday.

"A strong wind from the north-west is blowing across south Bengal and dragging the mercury down. The minimum temperature is likely to be around 10.5 degrees at least till the start of next week," an official in the Alipore Met department said.

A phase of clouding and snowfall in Kashmir around the weekend may cause the city temperature to rise a bit on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Friday's minimum - 11.1 - was two notches below normal and lowest in the past five years by a whisker. Last season's lowest was 11.2 degrees, recorded on January 15.

The minimum temperature recorded by the Met station at the Dum Dum airport on Friday was 9.9 degrees.

Meteorologists have ruled out a sub-10 plunge in Alipore for now because the north-westerly wind, which is ferrying cold to Bengal, is not blowing as strongly across the city as the fringes and the districts.

The last time the city recorded a lower minimum temperature was January 12, 2013, when the mercury had dropped to 10.9 degrees. Three days before that, the city had shivered at 9 degrees Celsius, the lowest in recent times.

According to Met records, the lowest minimum the city has ever experienced is 6.7, recorded on January 20, 1899.

"December was warm in Calcutta but there has been a turnaround in the new year, with the north-westerly wind picking up steam," said Ganesh Kumar Das, director, India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.

"The wind had lost its sting because of a cyclonic circulation over Bangladesh and a trough of low pressure over Uttar Pradesh. Both systems have weakened."

Friday's maximum was 22.2 degrees, three notches below normal.