Met issues yellow alert for today, orange for tomorrow
Times of India | 20 March 2025
123 Kolkata: The Met office issued an orange alert for Kolkata on Friday, indicating the possibility of an intense thunderstorm between Thursday and Saturday. Met officials said on Friday, Kolkata may experience gusty winds at 40 kmph-50 kmph, along with thunder and lightning. The agency has issued a yellow alert for Thursday and Saturday.
On Wednesday, though the maximum temperature — 33.9°C — was slightly below normal, the increasing moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal made the city swelter. Met officials said the mercury will start climbing down from Friday, once thunderstorm activities begin. "By Friday, we can expect a three-five-notch drop in the maximum temperature. The increasing moisture content from Wednesday is the reason for the high discomfort level," said Sourish Bandyopadhyay, weather scientist at Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata (RMC).
The minimum temperature — at 24.2°C — was 0.6 notches above normal. It has consistently remained above normal in the past 11 days.
At present, the moist southerly wind system is injecting moisture from the Bay of Bengal, while the city is also getting the dry westerly wind. The interaction of these two wind systems, the moisture content, and the heating combined are factors that would trigger the thundershower activities in Kolkata and southern districts. "Due to the presence of a favourable wind pattern and strong moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal at lower tropospheric levels, thunderstorms with lightning and strong gusty surface winds are very likely to occur in some districts of Bengal during March 20-22," said a special bulletin from IMD.
According to IMD's climatological table, Kolkata's mean total rainfall for March is 35.2 mm, with the month getting 2.2 rainy days. If the city gets rain on all three days, the amount could surpass the mean rain count. "As of now, it is an orange alert for Kolkata on Friday, implying the rain may be accompanied by thunder, lightning, and gusty winds," Bandyopadhyay said.
An orange alert has also been issued for Howrah, Hooghly, and North and South 24 Parganas on at least two days between Thursday and Saturday. Other districts with thunderstorm alert include Nadia, East and West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, and Burdwan.