Met warns of severe thunderstorms in West Bengal

The Met department today warned of severe thunderstorms with wind speed reaching up to 65 to 70 kilometre per hour in large parts of West Bengal till Sunday.

Heavy rain accompanied with hailstorm, high winds with speed reaching up to 70 km per hour are likely to affect the districts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal today.

"Thundersquall accompanied with wind speed between 55 to 65 km per hour is very likely to prevail over the districts of Bankura, Birbhum, East and West Bardhman, Murshidabad, Nadia, Jhargram, Purulia, East and West Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata and North and South 24 Parganas of south West Bengal on Saturday and Sunday," Regional Met Director G K Das said.

Das said that similar weather conditions are likely to be the same in these districts on Sunday also.

The districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Malda, North and South Dinajpur in northern parts of West Bengal are likely to continue to be affected by thundersquall accompanied with wind speed reaching upto 45-55 km per hour tomorrow, the regional Met director said.

"The severe thunderstorms with high wind speed that are likely to affect most parts of the state are owing to a north-south trough over eastern part of Bihar to south interior Odisha," Das said.

The weather system is likely to strengthen during the next two days with embedded cyclonic circulation over east Jharkhand and adjoining Gangetic West Bengal, Das said.