Rain lowers temp; ‘monsoon in South Bengal delayed by El Nino & Biparjoy’

Kolkata: The onset of monsoon in South Bengal has been delayed by El Nino and Cyclone “Biparjoy”. However, several parts of the city received rainfall on Monday evening which brought relief to the city dwellers.

The weather officials cannot predict when the monsoon rain will enter South Bengal.

Monsoon was expected to enter South Bengal on June 11. The MeT office said that there may be scattered rainfall in Gangetic Bengal but it will fail to bring relief to the people in South Bengal from hot and humid conditions.

Heatwave conditions will prevail in the western districts of Bengal, said the weather office.

Monsoon is, however, expected to enter hilly regions of Bengal and Dooars in another two days. Weather experts felt that there is hardly any chance for the monsoon to enter South Bengal before May 15.

Cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ which has contributed to the delayed entry of monsoon in South Bengal was likely to make landfall near Jakhau port in Gujarat’s Kutch district on Thursday afternoon as a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’ with maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday.

The MeT officer earlier hinted that the upcoming southwest monsoon season may be delayed and shortened with a skewed distribution of rainfall among various regions.

A link between a poor monsoon season and an El Nino event developing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean this year has been made by several experts recently.

The event is 80 per cent likely in the May-June-July period and 90 per cent likely in the June-July-August period.

El Nino, the warmer-than-normal phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, is generally associated with less intense rainfall than normal during the monsoon season for India.

Delayed onset and drought conditions have also been observed during El Nino years.