City witnesses heavy downpour

The city woke up to a cloudy morning on Friday followed by incessant rains throughout the day. The Alipore MeT department forecast heavy rains for the next two days in the cities and districts alongside the belt of sub-Himalayan West Bengal after few days of rain scarcity.

The sudden deluge, as the weathermen predicted, was caused by a trough of low pressure along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

A wind coming from northern India to North-east Bay of Bengal via the Gangetic West Bengal and a cyclonic circulation were also prime reasons as well.

But the city witnessed almost no rainfall on Thursday, but MeT office predicted heavy downpour till Sunday morning in Kolkata.

For last few days, the Gangetic West Bengal was more or less dry as high humidity caused uneasiness. On Friday, the MeT officials predicted that the coastal areas along with Kolkata, South and North Bengal are set to experience thunderstorm.

Among the hill towns, Darjeeling recorded 9.1 mm rainfall, 11.4 mm rainfall was recorded in Cooch Behar for last 24 hours and 6.7 mm was the recorded rainfall in Jalpaiguri. Rain will continue there at least for four days.

The MeT office has further predicted a cloudy weather and heavy thunderstorm till Sunday. The temperature would be around 28 to 29 degree Celsius. But sultry weather would prevail.

Heavy or moderate spell of thundershower at some places of Bankura, Burdwan, Birbhum, Howrah, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas, Purulia, East and West Midnapore, will continue for the next few days.

The rain has disrupted normal life with heavy rainfall accompanied by strong wind caused a little water logging in some areas of the city. The train services in Eastern and South Eastern Railway were partly disrupted.

“It has been a cloudy weather for last few days. We welcome the heavy downpour as the mercury is set to dip and we would have some respite,” said Jyoti Das, a South Kolkata house wife.

The office goers and other people, who need to commute every day, seemed not to be so happy with the sudden rains. 

“I am late today (Friday). It will cause a revenue loss to my company. Do you think, the company would spare me? The money would be slashed from my salary,” a call centre employee rued.