Rain, thunderstorm in S Bengal districts; city experiences strong breeze

Kolkata: Rain and thunderstorm hit various South Bengal districts while the city witnessed a strong breeze in the evening hours on Saturday.

Some parts of Kolkata and its adjoining areas, however, witnessed light shower in the evening which brought the temperature down by a few notches. It comes as a relief to the city dwellers from the heat and humidity of the past few weeks.

The city's sky remained overcast since Saturday morning. There is also an alert of rainfall in some districts of South Bengal on Sunday as well.

The Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore on Friday warned of thunderstorm coupled with high-speed winds in large parts of West Bengal till Sunday. Rain accompanied by hailstorm hit districts including Jhargram, West Midnapore while North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah received light to moderate rainfall in some parts. There was a heavy hailstorm in Jhargram on Saturday afternoon. A strong wind was blowing at 60-70 km per hour in some parts.

According to the weather official, cyclonic circulation which was hovering over Jharkhand has reached Gangetic West Bengal on Saturday bringing in rainfall to South Bengal districts. A trough of low pressure stretching from the eastern parts of Bihar up to Bengal also contributed to this.

The district administration of East Midnapore issued alert prohibiting fishermen from venturing into the sea as it may turn turbulent. The restrictions have been imposed on them at Digha and Sankarpur and other coastal regions.

It may be mentioned that there were repeated incidents of hailstorm and thundershower in various parts of North Bengal since Thursday. Incidentally, on Friday afternoon a middle-aged man died after a branch of a banyan tree fell on him at New Farakka area of Murshidabad.

In a separate incident, three people were electrocuted to death in North Bengal on Friday.

Jalpaiguri's Malbazar, Chapadanga and Chengmari experienced heavy hailstorms in the past two days.