The city of joy felt much respite when around 2.4mm of drizzle this afternoon brought down the day temperatures, after three weeks.

The mid-afternoon rain brought smiles on the faces of people on the streets, who welcomed the showers.

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The anticipation of rains had extended much longer than expected by the city residents and after almost three weeks brought relief. According to the Regional Meteorological Centre, Alipore received around 4mm rainfall while Salt Lake recorded about 5mm till 2.30 pm. The drizzles were, however, that of the pre-monsoons. Kolkata and most parts of south Bengal are yet to receive the monsoon rains.

According to the weather department, as of today, the southwest monsoon advanced into some more parts of north Bengal and covered North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and most parts of Malda district. Even as the southwest monsoon has penetrated in some parts of south Bengal, it is yet to become strong enough to trigger rains. The RMC is seeing hopes of further advancement of the southwest monsoon into some parts of south Bengal and remaining parts of north Bengal during next two to three days as conditions are said to be favourable for the movement of the winds to this part of the state.

According to the weather scientists, Kolkata and other districts of south Bengal, including Howrah, Hooghly, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram and so on are anticipated to get light to moderate rainfall for the next seven days. However, the intensity of the rains is to get reduced after three days. As explained by scientists, after advancing deeper into south Bengal, the southwest monsoons are likely to lose intensity in the next phase, which is to occur after three days. The weather condition with lighter rainfall is expected to prevail for the next two to three days and improve thereafter.

As reiterated by the weather department officials, even though there are chances of monsoons entering Kolkata in the next three to four days, the arrival of proper monsoons in the city could take some more time.