No heavy rain in Kolkata likely before Puja as depression moves west: MeT

KOLKATA: There is good news for the city dwellers who are yet to complete their Puja shopping as the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore has forecast no major rainfall before Puja. The low pressure situated over east central Bay of Bengal moved towards Chhattisgarh.

It may bring light rainfall in some parts of South Bengal in a scattered manner but it will hardly have any impact on the people.

The city's sky may remain partially cloudy in the next 24 hours. However, there will be no respite from sultry and discomfort conditions as the city dwellers will continue to witness high humidity. Relative humidity may remain around 93-94 per cent in the next 24 hours. The depression will bring moderate rainfall in Odisha.

Heavy rain is likely to have spared Kolkata before Puja, but many residents are still complaining about the discomfort that prevails. It is too early to say if the city will receive rainfall during Puja days. According to the weather office, the mercury was around one notch above normal, registering a maximum temperature over 33 degrees Celsius. The minimum relative humidity, a measure of the moisture content in the air during the driest part of the day, was on the higher side.

The MeT office on Monday predicted heavy spells of heavy rainfall in the coastal areas of East Midnapore, South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas. But no major rainfall occurred except some sporadic rainfall in some pockets in the past 24 hours. Some of the North Bengal districts may however receive scattered rainfall. In south Bengal the weather will remain mostly dry in the next 4-5 days, a weather official said.

South Bengal districts received nearly twice as much rainfall on September 12 than what they received between September 1-11. According to weather office data, up to September 12, the state received 1169.5 mm rainfall on average. The rainfall deficit remained around 17 per cent. In the case of Kolkata, the rain deficit stands at around 33 per cent. It may be mentioned here that Gangetic Bengal registered around 35 per cent rain deficit in early August and the overall rainfall deficit reduced up to 20 per cent till August end.