COLD COMFORT: It’s time for woollies and the North Wind. It’s time also for picnics and joyrides. Three tots of a kindergarten take time out at Millennium Park on Thursday morning, while their mates are at play. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

The city and the rest of south Bengal may receive showers in the next 24 hours, while the prevailing cold spell is likely to persist for the next two days, the weatherman announced on Thursday.

“We expect light to moderate rain in Calcutta and the districts of Gangetic Bengal tomorrow. There is very little chance of the weather improving in the next 48 hours,” said G.C. Debnath, the director of the weather section at Regional Meteorological Centre, Alipore. The minimum temperature in the city on Thursday was 14.4 degrees Celsius, which was normal.

Met officials attributed the cloud formation to the moisture-laden western disturbance that is now lying over Jharkhand and the adjoining Gangetic Bengal on Thursday.

The disturbance is a low-pressure zone that forms around this time of the year in the north-western parts of the country. It is packed with moisture from the Mediterranean Sea and other water sources.

“There is also a cold wind blowing from the Northeast. A chilly condition is prevailing in the Darjeeling and Sikkim hills,” said a Met official. “Both the chilly wind and overcast sky have kept the day’s maximum temperature under check.”

The sky over north Bengal will remain cloudy on Friday, with possibility of light to moderate rain in isolated places.