An evening thunderstorm, accompanied by rain lashing the city, brought respite from the blistering heat and humidity while leading to the injury of a person who was unfortunate to come under a falling tree.
Kolkata and its adjoining districts got respite after the thunderstorm and rain lashed the city during evening hours today. The city turned darker than usual during sunset with an overcast sky and speedy winds gripping Kolkata. As dusk descended, Kolkata saw heavy downpour for about half-an-hour.
According to the Regional Meteorological Centre, a squall passed over Kolkata from northwesterly direction at around 5.41 pm with maximum wind gust 84 kmph. The squall lasted over the city for three minutes, uprooting several trees in various parts of the city. Like the Alipore observatory, the squall is said to have passed over Dum Dum at around 6 pm from the westerly direction at a speed of 62 kmph that lasted for about a minute.
Two persons were trapped under an uprooted tree in the district magistrate’s office at Alipore after the thunderstorm. The two men, according to sources in the DM office, were trapped inside a car that was parked in the premises. A tree getting uprooted during the thunderstorm fell on the car causing injuries to one of them while the other person was rescued safely.
The injured was rushed to the Bangur Hospital where he was declared stable after initial treatment. Another tree got uprooted and came crashing on a parked car near Victoria Memorial in the Maidan area damaging the vehicle. Traffic snarls due to uprooted trees were also reported in some parts of the city. Apart from this, the evening showers and squall also caused train disruption in some of the lines of Sealdah division.
According to sources, train services in the city’s crucial circular railway were partially disrupted after a tree was uprooted at BBD Bagh. Similar disruptions were reported in two other lines following uprooting of trees and foreign material falling on overhead wires of the railways.
While bringing disruptions, the thunderstorm and the rainfall, however, also pulled down the mercury by a few notches, taking the lowest temperatures to around 26.1 degrees Celsius, one degree below the normal. Even the maximum temperature that the city registered hovered over just one degree above normal today remaining at 36.7 degree Celsius.
According to the weather office, the rainfall and thunderstorm was triggered due to the presence of an upper air trough from Bihar to Odisha and strong moisture incursion from Bay of Bengal.
The enhanced thunderstorm with lightning activity along with gusty wind is very likely to prevail over the districts of West Bengal, including Kolkata from 15-20 May. The thunderstorm activity is anticipated to see a peak during 18-20 May in south Bengal.