The city witnessed moderate rainfall on Sunday afternoon for around half-an -hour, giving the people a much-needed respite from the incessant heat of the past few weeks.
The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) Kolkata said that the cyclonic circulation over east Bihar brought the pre-monsoon rain to the city.
Meteorologists have further predicted a heavy downpour on Tuesday in Kolkata as a deep depression has formed over the Bay of Bengal. "A deep depression over the Bay of Bengal is likely to cause heavy rainfall in Kolkata on Tuesday. However, there is a chance that the depression will move to the north-eastern direction and hit the eastern part of Bangladesh," said GK Das, director, RMC Kolkata while talking to Millennium Post on Sunday. However, the MeT office predicted rain in some districts of South Bengal as well. "The latest Radar Observation indicates that thunderstorms are likely to affect some parts of Birbhum, Murshidabad and Nadia districts on Monday and Tuesday. It may be accompanied with lightning, squall, moderate rainfall and strong winds reaching 50 to 60 km per hour or more," a senior meteorologist said.
Kolkata had recently been reeling under hot and humid weather conditions. Uncomfortable afternoons prevailed over the city in the past few days. "We are actually waiting for rainfall along with strong winds in Kolkata. It will definitely decrease the temperature in the city and adjoining areas," said a citizen. According to Skymet weather, a private forecaster, these weather systems are expected to impact the weather in the interior parts of Bengal. Thunderstorms are expected over Kolkata during the next two to three days. However, these happenings may not bring much relief to the heat-affected areas. Kolkata and adjoining areas will remain hot and humid.
Meanwhile, rains are likely to intensify and a slight drop in temperature is expected thereafter. Moreover, the approaching rains have a good chance of continuing over Kolkata and its adjoining areas until the Monsoon, which is all set to arrive in the city in the second week of June. On Sunday, the daytime temperature of Kolkata was recorded at 41 degrees Celsius and the temperature at night was around 29 degrees Celsius.