The southwest monsoon is tipped to set its foot forward in the sub-Himalayan West Bengal in the next two to three days while Kolkata and other parts of south Bengal are unlikely to come under it before 6 June, officials in the Regional Meteorological Centre informed today.
According to the weather department, the southwest monsoon has set in over Kerala and advanced into most parts of northeast India including entire Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and most parts of Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam, today, 30 May. As tipped by the officials, conditions are favourable for further advancement of southwest monsoon into some parts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim during next two to three days. Taking the advancement of the monsoons into account and the strong moisture incursion over the region, the weather office has issued an orange warning for two days till tomorrow and a yellow warning for three days from 1 June. For the next five days, some districts of north Bengal are anticipated to have heavy to very heavy rainfall.
The poll-bound Kolkata and its adjoining areas are also to get rainfall from 1 June to 3 June but lighter in amount. The rainfall in this part of the state would not be brought by the southwest monsoon but by a different factor. According to the MET office, a trough runs from a cyclonic circulation over northwest Uttar Pradesh to west Bangladesh across southeast Uttar Pradesh, south Bihar and sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim. The system coupled with strong moisture incursion is expected to trigger light rainfall and thunderstorm activity in Kolkata and adjoining districts from 1 June to 3 June.