Kolkata: The Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore warned that several districts in South Bengal may receive thunderstorms with lightning, gusty wind at 40-60 kmph. Lightning will strike in several pockets.
Kolkata and several South Bengal districts received thundershower and rainfall accompanied by lightning on Thursday afternoon and also in the evening hours. Hailstorms occurred in several parts of Kolkata. A tree fell on the wall of the Calcutta Rowing Club as the gusty wind blew. The districts like North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore, Howrah, Kolkata, Hooghly received rainfall on Thursday. These districts may also receive rainfall on Friday as well. Purulia, Jhargram, West Midnapore, Bankura, West Burdwan, East Burdwan, Birbhum, Murshidabad and Nadia may also witness thundershower.
The MeT office said that thunderstorms may continue in Kolkata and other districts in South Bengal till next Sunday. “A cyclonic circulation lies over Bangladesh and neighbourhood and extends up to 1.5 km above mean sea level creating strong moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal.
Thunderstorms with lightning along with gusty wind speed and thunder squall activity are very likely to continue over the districts of West Bengal till the end of the weekend,” a weather official said. Cyclonic circulations, rain and thunderstorms are causing the maximum temperature to be at or below 35 degrees Celsius.
On Thursday, places like Midnapore, Krishnanagar, Asansol and Jhargram had a maximum temperature of around 33 degree Celsius.
Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Malda have been given a yellow alert for thunderstorms with lightning and gusty wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph, including light to moderate rain, which is expected to continue until this week. Thunderstorms and rainfall on repeated occasions have brought down the city’s temperature to around 30 degree Celsius from what had shot up to 43 in Kolkata a few days ago. The sky in the city may mostly remain cloudy in the next couple of days as well.