No respite after dark, min above normal for 9 days
Times of India | 18 March 2025
12 Kolkata: In addition to the sweltering days, the nights, too, have turned hot and humid with the minimum temperature consistently staying above the normal mark over the past nine days. Though Kolkata got a few spells of light rain on Monday night, Met officials said it was not enough to bring relief from the discomfort. However, thundershower activities in the city between Thursday and Friday are expected to drag the mercury down. A yellow alert has been issued for Kolkata for Thursday and Friday, when thundershowers could be accompanied by gusty wind.
Late on Monday evening, the city received drizzle accompanied by lightning strikes, similar to what happened on Sunday evening.
The maximum temperature climbed down two degrees on Monday — to 33.7°C — which was slightly below normal. Though the minimum temperature also climbed down from 26.5°C to 25.2°C, it was 1.6 notches above normal.
"We are expecting thunderstorm activities in Kolkata and a few other districts between Thursday and Saturday. Once that happens, we can expect some significant dip in the mercury," said H R Biswas, head of the weather forecast section at Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) Kolkata.
Some thundershower activities on Sunday brought down the mercury slightly but the high humid content prevented the city from feeling the dip. In fact, when the Met office recorded the maximum as 33.7°C, the real feel was 35°C.
"Higher the humidity, the worse is the discomfort factor. The humidity level is remaining above 90% for a very long period, making the real feel higher than the actual temperature," said Sourish Bandyopadhyay, weather scientist at RMC Kolkata.
The Met officials said that the city is currently is getting a high amount of moisture from the Bay of Bengal, along with dry westerly wind,which is causing the current thunderstorm activities.
On Monday, some places in the districts, including East and West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, and Burdwan, got a few spells of thunderstorm.