It has also predicted heavy rainfall at one or two places in Murshidabad and East Midnapore districts.

Thunderstorms with slightly less intensity are likely over the rest of the districts of South Bengal, weather experts said.

Meanwhile, they have said that the rain and thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and gusty wind are likely to persist in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar until next week.

“An east-west trough runs from a cyclonic circulation over northwest Rajasthan to south Assam across Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand & Gangetic West Bengal at 0.9 km above mean sea level. A cyclonic circulation lies over north Bihar & neighbourhood at 3.1 km above mean sea level. A trough runs from above cyclonic circulation over north Bihar to north Odisha across Jharkhand & Gangetic West Bengal at 3.1 km above mean sea level. Under above favourable synoptic conditions and strong moisture incursion from Bay of Bengal, thunderstorms with lightning along with gusty wind speed activity are very likely to continue over the districts of West Bengal,” said a report by the weather department.

In Bankura, Sriniketan, Burdwan, Asansol, Barrackpore, Jhargram, and Krishnanagar, the maximum temperature hovered around 32-33 degree Celsius on Friday. The maximum temperature in the state was recorded at Kalaikunda with 37 degrees Celsius.