Around 11.30am, tennis players warmed up for a veterans’ tournament at South Club on Woodburn Park Road. Several wore full-length track pants instead of shorts.

At a PSU bank in Behala, long queues usually form at the counters as soon as the gates open at 10am. Many in the line are pensioners. On Tuesday, the counters were deserted.

Signs of the coldest day in 13 years were visible across the city.

“I love winters, but this is now getting stretched. Waking up early in the morning is becoming more difficult every day,” said Kasturi Roy Burman, a New Alipore resident whose daughter is in Class II at a south Calcutta school. The school bus picks her up at 6.55am.

Even in the afternoon, pedestrians wore multiple layers of warm clothing, with heads and ears covered against the biting cold.

South Club hosted a tournament for players aged 35 to 75.

“Early in the morning, it was foggy. People were shivering at the warm-up sessions. I saw men in track pants instead of shorts. I even spotted the legendary monkey cap on a player,” said Satyajeet Burman, a participant and club veteran. “Some of the participants have come from Mumbai and down south. For them, Calcutta on Tuesday was like Darjeeling.”

Morning walkers felt the winds most sharply. The usual crowd at Rabindra Sarobar was thin, as was that at the Victoria Memorial.

“We usually walk around 5km, starting from the Maidan and going around Victoria. It was so windy today that despite three layers of clothing, we felt cold. We still went out, but many people skipped their walk,” said Alipore resident Pawan Tibrewala, 62, part of a group whose daily walk starts at 4.45am.

Neighbourhood momo and kebab stalls did brisk business after sundown. Watering holes were also busy, with hot cocktails such as hot toddy and mulled wine the preferred choice.

“Hot toddy has become very popular. The sale of beer has plunged,” said Pratap Daryanani, owner of Oasis on Park Street.

In the afternoon, women playing golf on the Maidan also wore several layers of warm clothing.

Tuesday felt colder because it was largely sunless. Only part of the afternoon saw mild sunshine.

Near Jadubabu’s Bazar around 11.30am, a small fire was lit, with a group of yellow taxi drivers huddled around it. “I have been driving in the city for many years. The bite of the winter this year is different,” said one of them.