Sudden rains bring brief respite to Kolkata

A sudden spell of afternoon rains brought relief in boiling Kolkata and parts of south Bengal region on Wednesday but the monsoon will only progress in the next two to three days, a Met official said here.

"This was a local thunderstorm resulting from the scorching heat and the moisture present, very similar to pre-monsoon rains. This has no relation with monsoon... We feel it is likely that monsoon progress will re-start after Friday," said A.K. Sen, a scientist of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.

He also said Wednesday's rainfall occurred in isolated places of Kolkata, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas and also in Midnapore district.

"Overall prediction of monsoon looks promising as India will get almost 97 per cent rainfall and the eastern region may get 95 per cent in a four-month period of monsoon," added Sen.

The temperature shot up to 40 degrees Celsius, inconveniencing those on the roads and even those who preferred to remain indoors due to the high humidity over the past few days. The heat wave has claimed at least four lives in the state.

The rain brought temporary relief and would also bring down the temperature gradually.

According to the Met department, the maximum recorded temperature has reached around 39.6 degrees Celsius which is almost 7 degrees above normal. The minimum temperature was around 29.6 degrees, 4 degrees above normal.

The relative humidity recorded in the last 24 hours was 64 per cent in the morning and 73 per cent on Tuesday evening, causing immense problems.

Heavy rains (7-11 cm) with lightning are likely at one or two places over Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Malda, North and South Dinajpur districts of Sub Himalayan West Bengal on Friday, the weatherman said.

--IANS

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