Kolkata: The mercury slid to 35°C on Thursday, half a notch above normal, after hitting 39.2°C on Monday. A steady evening wind, partly cloudy sky and traces of localized thundershowers over the week steered the city away from heatwave-like conditions, making a wet weekend of heavy rainfall and gusty winds likely.
While the rest of south Bengal continues reeling under a heatwave, likely to be broken by widespread thundershowers between June 14 and 15, Kolkata started getting some sustained respite, with the maximum temperature not likely to cross 35°C before the weekend showers.The real-feel maximum temperature, which peaked at 56°C earlier in the week, also fell to 44°C by Thursday. “There may be some more isolated showers before the end of the week. The maximum is unlikely to increase on Friday and Saturday,” said RMC scientist Sourish Bandyopadhyay.
On the other hand, the maximum relative humidity increased marginally to 87% by Thursday but a late-night spell of gusty winds pushed the minimum temperature down to 27.9°C from the week’s highest of 30.4°C. Since last week, night-time humidity reduced the gap between the maximum and minimum temperatures and kept the city sweating.
While Kolkata waits for moisture incursions from Bay of Bengal to blow in with a weekend thunderstorm with wind gusting up to 30 kmph-40 kmph, Friday may be partly cloudy, with maximum and minimum temperatures remaining close to 35°C and 27°C respectively.