Heavy rainfall alert for nine South Bengal districts

Kolkata: The Regional Meteorological Centre has issued a heavy rainfall alert in nine south Bengal districts on Saturday.

The coastal districts may receive maximum rainfall. Kolkata, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas will receive thundershowers in the next 24 hours. There will be heavy rainfall in Hooghly, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, East Burdwan and West Burdwan. Lightning may strike several south Bengal districts. Several south Bengal districts may continue to receive heavy rainfall on Sunday as well.

According to the MeT office prediction, five north Bengal districts will continue to receive heavy rainfall in the next couple of days.

“The city’s sky will mostly remain cloudy in the next 24 hours. As the humidity will be on a higher side, discomfort will prevail. A strong breeze measuring 30-50 kmph may be sweeping through several districts in south Bengal,” a weather official said. The MeT office said that Monsoon has already entered most parts of south Bengal and it will cover the remaining parts within the next couple of days. Thundershowers lashed several parts of south Bengal on Friday morning. Kolkata also received light rainfall on Thursday morning as well. South Bengal has registered around 72 per cent rain deficit in this season so far.

In June, there has been a substantial rain deficit so far. Contrary to south Bengal, North Bengal has seen 64 per cent excess rainfall in June this year. Monsoon has already set in in south Bengal but the region is yet to receive heavy showers.

The Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore predicted heavy rainfall in the beginning of July which may compensate for the rain deficit of June to some extent.