Sandakphu & Darjeeling receive first snowfall of the season

Kolkata: Sandakphu and Darjeeling witnessed the first snowfall of the season on Saturday.

Tourists who went to Tiger Hill and Darjeeling were delighted to experience snow fall.

Hailstorm occurred at Chatakpur. People there have been getting a cold shiver while the city dwellers have been witnessing a rise in the mercury in the past few days. Mercury went up to 14.4 degree Celsius on Saturday. The city on Friday registered the lowest temperature at around 13.4 degree Celsius.

Meteorologists have already predicted that the pollution level in Kolkata may turn worse this winter compared to that of previous years due to the impact of La Nina which is expected to blow over east and north India between December this year and February next year.

La Nina is a weather pattern that occurs in the Pacific Ocean under the impact of which strong winds blow from warm water at the ocean's surface from South America to Indonesia.

It brings cold air to the Indian sub-continent from Siberia and South China. As warm water moves towards west and cold water rises to the surface. La Nina is Spanish terminology, the meaning of which is 'little girl'.

It may be mentioned here that Kolkata's air quality sharply deteriorated on Friday when thousands of citizens went out to celebrate on Christmas Eve.

Air quality index across the seven automatic air quality monitoring stations turned red (very poor) from brown (poor). The air quality kept deteriorating to very poor levels at four stations — Ballygunge, Bidhannagar (Salt Lake), Jadavpur and Rabindra Bharati University (BT Road).

There is a relationship between La Nina and air pollution.

The weather experts have pointed out that the temperature across the Indo Gangetic Plains is expected to fall below what these areas normally witness every year during this period. La Nina is expected in north and east India between December 2021 and February 2022.