Clear sky brings cheer but deficit rainfall paints a dismal picture

Kolkata: City dwellers on Monday woke up to a sunny morning with the temperature hovering close to normal wiping out the impact of a strong low pressure trough that had caused heavy rainfall in the city and other South Bengal districts in the past couple of days.

The weather remained pleasant on Monday.

The highest temperature hovered around 30-32 degree Celsius with average humidity-level giving some respite to the people in South Bengal from the scorching summer heat.

A heavy spell of rain that lashed the city and various South Bengal districts on last Friday and Saturday had pulled the mercury down by a few notches.

The city received the highest seasonal rainfall between August 16 and 18 taking the rain deficit level to around 20 per cent.

According to a senior official at the Regional Meteorological Department in Alipore, the city has received high rainfall over a very short span of time and this has been caused by a change in the global weather system.

In August, Kolkata received more than 400 mm rainfall, which is more than the double it received last year in the same month.

"The distribution of rainfall in the state has been erratic this time. North Bengal witnessed a flood-like situation a month ago while the farmers in the South Bengal were eying crop loss induced by prolonged dry weather during monsoon. Rainfall scarcity led to a deficit in rainfall in all the South Bengal districts. This might be attributed to a recent change in the weather pattern. Heavy shower in the past few days has minimised the deficit by a significant margin," a weather official said.

The entire South Bengal had witnessed a relatively dry weather during June and July, when the city had its share of rain deficit of 69 and 56 per cent. In the current month till heavy rainfall made its mark, the rain deficit was around 44 per cent. The figure now has dropped to around 20 percent.

The MeT office on Monday predicted there would be no heavy rainfall in the city in the next couple days and the weather would be pleasant.

Western districts such as Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, West Midnapore and some parts of Birbhum and West Burdwan may receive moderate to heavy rainfall in the next two days.