Weather likely to clear up from today

Kolkata: The regional Meteorological centre at Alipore has predicted improvement in the weather conditions from Saturday with the well-marked low-pressure area that had intensified on Thursday night shifting to Myanmar. "There may be light rain or no rainfall in the city from Saturday morning. A few districts of South Bengal may receive a little rainfall on Saturday. North Bengal too will receive light rainfall," a senior official of the Alipore weather office said.

The depression over the West-Central Bay of Bengal had kept moving almost parallel to the north of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts till Friday afternoon bringing rainfall throughout the day. Though there was no torrential rain, there were showers throughout the day, sometimes in drizzles and sometimes a little heavy.

The second day of the Test match between India and Sri Lanka had to be postponed after play could be possible only for a few hours. People had a harrowing time looking for transport as there was less number of buses and autos plying on the roads.

The seaside resort town of Digha and Diamond Harbour in coastal South 24-Parganas recorded heavy rainfall on Friday.

There is a forecast of moderate rainfall in some coastal areas of the state on Saturday too. Squalls are likely and the weather warning for fishermen will stay for the next 24 hours.

The weather office also declared that the retreat of the depression will open the door for north winds that will gradually pave the way for winter. "Temperatures in some parts of the state may dip to 17-18 degree Celsius in the coming week, however, it will take another fortnight for winter to arrive in full swing," the weather department official said.

The pitter patter on Thursday and Friday has left water puddles here and there causing fear that Aedes Aegypti might renew its breeding activities. "When doctors and virologists alike had started hoping for the dengue menace to slip away with the fall in the mercury, the rain returned to facilitate mosquito breeding activities," an official in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's health department said.