The city today witnessed a brief but intense spell of afternoon showers, with the sky remaining overcast throughout most of the day. The low pressure zone formed over the northern Bay of Bengal will intensify further and it will trigger light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorm and lightning in all south Bengal districts including Kolkata over the next five days.
“The low pressure zone over the Bay of Bengal is bringing moisture-laden clouds over the Gangetic West Bengal and it always creates an atmosphere conducive to monsoon. Although the monsoon has officially set in much earlier, the rainfall has been insufficient so far. But we can expect a change in weather from now,” said the Met department.
Rainfall, however, may not be as intense and long-lasting as expected, he added.
The city today witnessed a normal minimum temperature after a long gap. While the minimum temperature stood at 26.2 degree celsius, the maximum temperature was recorded at 35 degree, two notches higher than the normal. The average maximum and minimum temperature is expected to remain the same for the coming week. The relative maximum humidity touched 95 per cent today while minimum humidity was 63 per cent. The rainfall in the last 24 hours has been recorded at 3.5 mm.
The rainfall which started from Saturday in the city and its surrounding districts will continue to bring much needed respite from the extremely hot and humid conditions of the past few weeks. Despite the delayed arrival of monsoon in the city on 21 June, there has been scanty and scattered rainfall till now.
The monsoon deficit in South Bengal currently stands at 48 per cent while the North Bengal districts have been lashed by heavy rainfall ever since the south-western monsoon winds made incursion into the region.