City received 17 mm of rainfall in past 24 hrs

Kolkata: The Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore predicted that heavy rainfall will continue in western districts of Bengal in the next 24 hours while several south Bengal districts may receive scattered rainfall worsening the situation further.

Several parts of Western districts have been inundated following heavy rainfall in the past couple of days.

A ‘Red alert’ has been issued for Cooch Behar and Alipurduar while other North Bengal districts will receive heavy rainfall, the MeT office predicted. The weather office also said that the depression will move towards Bangladesh in two days and weaken.

“The depression has currently been situated over Gangetic West Bengal which is expected to enter Bangladesh in two days and weaken. There has been a low-pressure axis stretching from Sikkim up to Chhattisgarh. Weather conditions will change both in North and South Bengal from the weekend,” a weather official said.

Weather experts have said that depression has taken a U-turn from Chhattisgarh and re-entered Bengal. It has gained strength as moisture originating from another low pressure over Arabian Sea has been contributing to the depression that was triggered in the eastern part following a low pressure. It has resulted in heavy rainfall in several North and South Bengal districts.

There will be heavy rainfall in Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, North Dinajpur and Malda as well. There will be scattered rainfall in several parts of North Bengal till Saturday and Sunday. The weather conditions may improve in Kolkata after Friday. The sky will mostly remain cloudy in the city on Friday.

Kolkata registered its lowest temperature at 26.2 degree Celsius on Thursday and the highest temperature was recorded at 28.6 degree Celsius on Wednesday which was 4 degree above normal. The city had received an average of around 17 mm of rainfall.

Several south Bengal districts like Birbhum, Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas received moderate rainfall on Thursday as well. The coastal districts received heavy rainfall. There has been heavy inundation reported from several parts of Western districts. Panskura, Moyna, Khejuri-I and Patashpur-I block are among the worst hit areas in East Midnapore. Over 13,496 farmlands have gone underwater.

Bengal received an unusual distribution of rainfall in September with Kolkata receiving a 60 per cent surplus against its normal count of 318mm. The monsoon this year may retreat by or after October 20, the MeT office said.