Temperature in Kolkata touches 40 degree Celsius-mark, ‘to climb further in next two days’

Kolkata: Kolkata on Friday registered the highest temperature of the day at 40 degree Celsius. The city on Thursday saw its highest temperature at 39 degree Celsius.

The Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore said that Kolkata’s highest temperature may touch 41 degree Celsius in the next couple of days. Some of the western districts may see temperatures as high as 44-45 degree Celsius in the next couple of days.

The only silver lining for people in South Bengal is that the MeT office has predicted that it may rain in Kolkata and various other South Bengal districts after Monday. Heatwave conditions will however prevail in almost all the south Bengal districts as of now, MeT office said. Bankura registered the highest temperature of the day on Friday at 42.4 degree Celsius, Sriniketan in Birbhum at 41.6 degree Celsius, Canning in South 24-Parganas 40 while Salt Lake and Dum Dum recorded the highest temperature of the day at 80.8 degree Celsius. Diamond Harbour in South 24-Parganas registered the highest temperature at 38.4 degree Celsius, Digha in East Midnapore saw 35 and Haldia in the same district registered the highest temperature of the day at 35.2 degrees.

“It may rain in some of the south Bengal districts on Monday-Tuesday. Rainfall will continue in 5 North Bengal districts as well. Heatwaves will continue to play havoc on the daily life of the people till Sunday,” a weather official said.

Based on the MeT office record, April and May are the hottest months in Kolkata. The “mean daily maximum temperature” is 35.4 degrees Celsius in April and 35.5 degrees in May. Records say that there was not a drop of rain in Kolkata for 60-odd days between February-end and April-end, the longest dry phase in the city in over four decades in 2022. Last year, the city was officially under a heatwave. The scorching conditions in April were something that the city had not seen since 2016. In April 2016, the Celsius had touched the 40-degree mark in Kolkata.