Kolkata weather: RealFeel touches 39°C, more hot, sweaty days in store, predicts Met
Telegraph | 16 March 2025
Saturday showed a glimpse of the twin assaults of heat and humidity that Calcuttans will be subjected to in the coming days, the Met office has warned.
The Met office has already sounded a heatwave alert for the western districts of Bengal. But the conditions there will be a lot drier than in Calcutta and other coastal regions of south Bengal, said a Met official.
“The next few days are likely to be hot and humid in coastal and semi-coastal areas of south Bengal, including Calcutta. The western districts of Bengal will be under the grip of dry heat. The Celsius is likely to breach the 40-degree mark at multiple places,” said an official at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore.
Doctors advised people to be on guard against the soaring Celsius. Any relief in the form of thunderstorms is not likely before a week, said the weatherman.
On Saturday, the minimum relative humidity in Alipore was 60 per cent. This means the level of moisture in the atmosphere during the driest part of the day was 60 per cent. On Thursday, it was 27 per cent.
The high moisture content prevented the day temperature from shooting up. The maximum temperature on Saturday was around 34 degrees Celsius, normal for mid-March. But the humidity also made the night warmer than usual. At 26.3 degrees, the minimum was close to four degrees above normal.
The real effect of the high humidity was beyond Met readings. People sweated and fretted throughout the day.
Around 3.30pm, a display board at the exit of Esplanade Metro station showed a reading of 39 degrees Celsius. Around the same time, a phone screen in Behala showed a temperature of 35 degrees and a RealFeel of 39.
A weather scientist attributed the difference in the temperature readings to the “heat-island effect”. An urban heat island is a metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than other areas because of concrete density and dwindling greenery and water bodies, among other factors.
The elevated temperatures result from the heat trapped by the excessive occurrence of concrete surfaces in cities.
The city’s maximum temperature, on paper, 34 degrees, was the Met reading at Alipore, recorded around an hour earlier. The Met office compound in Alipore is nestled in a lot of greenery.
The day temperature in Calcutta is likely to go up, said the Met official.
“The maximum is expected to reach 36 degrees in a couple of days. The relative humidity will go down marginally but the conditions will still be uncomfortable,” said the official.
The Met office has offered hope after the long period of grind.
Hot and dry westerly winds are active in the western districts of Bengal. Moisture-laden southerly winds are active in the coastal regions. The convergence of these two sets of winds is expected to help in the formation of thunderclouds.
“Scattered thunderstorm activities are expected across south Bengal on March 20 and 21,” the Met official said.