Winter is coming to city by Nov end: Experts

The departure of untimely rain due to sudden depression on the Bay of Bengal is paving the way for winter to reach the city.

The presence of winter was felt at the crack of dawn; cool breeze welcomed the evening, but there still exists a doubt about how long this cool weather will persist? There is still a question in the air if this is the real winter air or has the atmosphere become cold due to the untimely rainfall?

The weather scientists have predicted that the end of November will bring in winter season in the City of Joy. The weather scientists of Regional Meteorological Centre – Kolkata are, however, still reluctant to announce the time. They explained that last year, winter had hit town more than a fortnight ahead of time on November 22.

The rain and the cloud cover had resulted in Celsius disparities like maximum temperatures five degrees below normal and minimum readings at five notches above normal.

With pleasant days and cool mornings, winter is the most favoured season in this city. Winter in Kolkata extends from mid-November to January and peaks around New Year. The first half of October remains above 30°C. October 14, 2015, is still remembered among the weather scientists, as the one of the hottest days of this month as the maximum touched 34.9°C.

“Winter crawls in by the second fortnight of November and the first bite of winter is felt as maximums temperature drops below 30°C,” a weather scientists said.

The good news is that all things remaining the same, the city will enjoy normal winter season by some weeks. The wintry feel has been around. The humidity-induced cloud cover had earlier blocked out the cold but now the cool breeze is flowing.

On Saturday it was learnt that the weather in Kolkata along with the South Bengal districts will improve from Monday and there is no chance of cyclone Nada.

The low pressure area on Saturday afternoon lay over South, South-west of Bay of Bengal around 470 km away from Kolkata. It was likely to cross Bangladesh coast late Sunday night, according to officials of Alipore Meteorological Office.

Meanwhile, the city and its suburbs had received moderate to heavy rainfall from early Saturday morning. The city woke up to an overcast sky with intermittent rain. Two trees were uprooted in Tangra and Salt Lake. 

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) deployed disaster management teams to clear the road and remove the uprooted trees. Traffic movement was restored within half an hour.

Vast areas in North 24 Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah received moderate to heavy rainfall Saturday. Some low lying areas in North 24 Parganas and Hooghly were inundated. The organisers of Jagadhatri Pujas in Chandannagar said because of heavy shower final touches to the idols and pandals could not be given. 

There was knee deep water in some areas and the civic bodies have deployed portable pumps to clear the accumulated water from the streets. Chandannagar is famous for putting up lights to decorate the pandals but because of rain they could not be installed.

The tourists in Digha, Mandarmani and Shankarpur had to be kept indoors because of the shower accompanied by heavy wind. Police patrolling intensified to prevent the tourists from going to the beach. East Midnapore district administration has asked fishermen not to go to the deep sea in the next 24 hours. 

Meanwhile, five fishermen were reported to be missing after their trawler named Ma Ganga which was anchored was hit by another trawler. The district administration claimed that some fishermen have already been rescued and search is on to bring back the others to the shore safely.