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Bengal

Back-to-back squalls bring temperature down by few notches; more rain predicted

Kolkata: Normal life was temporarily thrown out of gear late on Friday afternoon when too high-intensity squalls accompanied by rain uprooted trees and snapped cables, leading to traffic congestion in several parts of the city.
"There were squalls in two phases — one with a wind speed of around 56 km/ hour at around 3.30 pm and another at 92 km/ hour both of which lasted for a minute each. There was also moderate rainfall," a senior officer of Alipore weather office said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called up Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and took stock of the entire situation.
"The squall accompanied by rain in different parts of the city, included parts of Howrah, South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas. This led to a fall of temperature dipping from 32.4 degree Celsius to 25.5 degree Celsius," Regional MeT director G K Das said.
As many as 25 trees in the city fell, particularly in North and Central Kolkata and Park Circus in South Kolkata. A number of cars were damaged including two at Ganesh Chandra Avenue when part of a huge tree collapsed. However, there was no report of any injury owing to the storm. A traffic signal outpost collapsed at Behala Sakher Bazar area while another fell down at M G Road in Central Kolkata.
A person reportedly died at Shyampur in Howrah because of a tree collapse while three persons were injured at Nidhiram Majhi Lane.
A part of an old building caved in at Mandirtala while the electronic equipment at the office of Howrah Rural police district was damaged because of lightning.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) recorded maximum rainfall in Palmer Bazar-29.21 mm, New Market 22.86 mm, Dhapa 38.21 mm, Ballygunge 23.4 mm.
The weather office has also predicted moderate showers accompanied by thunderstorms in Howrah, Hooghly and East Burdwan in the next 24 hours. "There are chances of moderate rain in Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram and West Burdwan too," the official of the MeT office said.
The MeT office did not rule out chances of thundershower in Kolkata too in the next 24 hours.
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