Kolkata
Kolkata in winter: the weather month by month, and what the season is for
Kolkata's winter is short and mild: December and January average 26 °C by day and 14 to 15 °C at night, with almost no rain. Here is each month from the IMD's own figures, and the things that only happen in these weeks.
In a great many Kolkata homes there is a winter box. It comes down from the top of the almirah some time in December, smells of naphthalene, and holds the monkey caps, the shawls and the one sweater that has been too small for three years. Then, most years, it goes back up again within a few weeks. That, in one sentence, is Kolkata's winter: short, much loved, and milder than the fuss suggests.
The India Meteorological Department's station at Alipore has thirty years of averages, and its 1991 to 2020 tables put numbers on the feeling. Here they are month by month, and after them the things that belong to these weeks and no others. The averages are normals, not this year's weather: as of 1 November, Open-Meteo's forecast puts overnight lows at around 20 °C on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November.
The weather, month by month
| Month | Day / night °C | Rain | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|---|
| November | 30.2 / 20.1 | 32.6 mm | 1.4 |
| December | 26.7 / 15.5 | 5.6 mm | 0.7 |
| January | 25.5 / 14.3 | 15.4 mm | 1.1 |
| February | 29.4 / 18.1 | 24.6 mm | 1.5 |
November is the run-in. The monsoon has gone (32.6 mm of rain in the month against 179.6 mm in October) and the nights drop to about 20 °C. December and January are the heart of it. The days sit at 25 to 27 °C, shirt-sleeve weather at noon, and the nights fall to 14 or 15 °C. That is when the winter box comes down. February warms fast, back to 29.4 °C by day.
Cold, in Kolkata, has a floor. The lowest temperature in the Alipore records, as Wikipedia's weather table gives it, is 6.7 °C, in January.
What the season is for
Christmas on Park Street
Park Street has been the city's evening street since the British years, and it is still where Kolkata goes for Christmas and New Year's Eve. Sir Elijah Impey once kept a deer park on the land the street now crosses. Not far away, Bow Barracks, said to have been built as a soldiers' mess in the First World War and home now to mostly Anglo-Indian families, has a reputation of its own for Christmas. For the history before the crowd, Akashvani Kolkata has three short pieces on the city's old churches, and Half Pant History has one on the cemeteries around Park Street.
8:27Play: St. John's Church, KolkataSt. John's Church, Kolkata
Akashvani Kolkata
Akashvani Kolkata's short piece on the church where, the title says, a bomb fell during a world war. Eight minutes, posted on Christmas Day 2025.
9:07Play: Lost Cemeteries of CalcuttaLost Cemeteries of Calcutta
Half Pant History
Half Pant History on the Park Street burial grounds the city has lost. Nine minutes.
Nolen gur and Jaynagarer moa
Winter is the season of nolen gur, the date-palm jaggery, and of what Bengal makes from it. One of the best known is Jaynagarer moa, from Jaynagar Majilpur in South 24 Parganas: nolen gur, Kanakchur khoi (popped from a fragrant rice that grows only in winter), cow's-milk ghee, cardamom and poppy seed. It has had a geographical indication since 2015. Wikipedia also notes that nolen gur has grown harder to find since 2013, as date palms dwindle and more of the Shiuli families who tap them leave the trade. When you find a good moa, it is worth the trip.
The Book Fair
The Kolkata Book Fair began in 1976, small, run by the Publishers and Booksellers Guild. It is now a winter fixture held for readers rather than the trade, and the 2025 fair ran from 28 January to 9 February at the Boimela Prangan in Salt Lake. The 2027 fair, the fiftieth, runs from Friday 22 January to Wednesday 3 February, the Guild says.
Further afield
Poush Mela at Santiniketan opens on the 7th of Poush, in late December, and officially runs three days, though Wikipedia notes that from 2017 it ran six. The same page dates the first fair to 1894. Visva-Bharati has not announced the 2026 arrangements yet. The Kolkata International Film Festival dates from 1995; its 32nd edition runs from Wednesday 16 to Wednesday 23 December 2026, under the festival's own regulations, and our KIFF guide has the rest. The second Bengal Biennale, Banalata, runs from 25 November 2026 to 2 January 2027 across Kolkata and Santiniketan, with venues that include the Indian Museum and the Alipore Museum in Kolkata and the Nandan Museum in Santiniketan.
For a winter night
Winter nights are the best for stories in this city. The windows can stay shut, there is time for a second cup of tea, and a ghost story sounds better with a quilt pulled up. Start with these two:
25:48Play: KuashaKuasha
Mirchi Bangla
Nihar Ranjan Gupta's Kuasha, on Mirchi Bangla's Sunday Suspense Classics. 26 minutes: the length of one cup of tea.
57:47Play: Ek Sheeter RaateEk Sheeter Raate
221B Harrison Road
A village ghost story set on a winter night, from 221B Harrison Road's Taldighi series, 58 minutes.
And for the day itself, the old songs sound right in this weather. Our Purono mood has them, and Adda is for when the whole family is home and nobody wants to go out. The Victoria Memorial, finished in 1921, when Calcutta was no longer India's capital, looks its best on a clear winter afternoon too. The box can go back up in February.
References (8)
- Climatological Tables 1991-2020: Kolkata (Alipore), India Meteorological Department. Checked 25 Oct 2026.
- Kolkata Book Fair, Wikipedia. Checked 25 Oct 2026.
- Jaynagarer Moa, Wikipedia. Checked 25 Oct 2026.
- Park Street, Kolkata, Wikipedia. Checked 25 Oct 2026.
- Bow Barracks, Wikipedia. Checked 25 Oct 2026.
- Poush Mela, Wikipedia. Checked 25 Oct 2026.
- Kolkata International Film Festival, Wikipedia. Checked 25 Oct 2026.
- Victoria Memorial, Wikipedia. Checked 25 Oct 2026.
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