Overnight rain lashes Kolkata, heavy showers on the cards

Parts of Kolkata went under ankle to knee-deep water on Thursday following blinding overnight showers, with the met office issuing heavy rainfall warnings for the next three days.

Important areas of the city like M.G. Road crossing, Amherst Street, Salt Lake Sector five, were waterlogged, inconveniencing daily commuters.

The Airport Police Station near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Dum Dum, turned into a mini-swimming pool with knee-deep water inside its premises.

"Every year we face the problem of water logging but this year it is too much. We are working in knee-deep water and it is very troublesome," said a police officer.

Till 8.30 a.m., the city recorded 36.8 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours and the relative humidity was 95 per cent.

According to the weathermen, the axis of monsoon trough at mean sea level now passes through Kolkata, south Uttar Pradesh and neighbourhood and thence east-southeastwards to the Northeast Bay of Bengal.

"The cyclonic circulation over northern parts of Bangladesh now lies over Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal between 1.5 km & 5.8 km above mean sea level. Under its influence a low-pressure area is likely to form over north Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood during next 2-3 days," the bulletin mentioned.

As per the weather bulletin, heavy rain is on the cards in one or two places over the districts of Kolkata, North & South 24 Parganas, Howrah and 11 other districts of Gangetic West Bengal.

Heavy rains on Thursday morning brought down the mercury with the maximum temperature recorded at 31.4 degrees Celsius, one notch below the season's average. The minimum temperature hovered around 26.4 degrees Celsius.

--IANS

bnd/ssp/vd

A

A