Kolkata: A good rain spell on Wednesday morning pushed the maximum temperature in the city down to 30° C, 5.6 notches below the normal mark, ensuring the heat was kept at bay. The Met office has forecast the possibility of rain over the next few days, keeping the weather cool for now.
The city received a total of 29.6 mm of rain in the past 24 hours, most of which occurred in the early hours, adding to April's rain tally and bringing the total monthly rain count to 77.5 mm. This monthly rain count is the highest for April since 2019. The 29.6 mm was also the highest single-day rainfall for this month.
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Due to the overnight rain on Monday, both the maximum and minimum temperatures plunged to the month's lowest of 31.2°C and 19.2°C, respectively, on Tuesday. While the minimum temperature shot up to 25.7° Celsius on Wednesday, the maximum, however, nosedived further.
"As far as the maximum temperature is concerned, it normally surges between 10 am and 1 pm. But as most of the rain on Wednesday occurred during the morning hours, it helped the mercury to go down further," explained Met scientist HR Biswas, head of the Weather Forecast Section at the Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.
At present, the city, as well as other districts, are under the spell of an upper air cyclonic circulation, with a trough merged with cyclonic circulation. These two systems, along with a favourable wind pattern and moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal, will continue to trigger more rain. "We are expecting at least one or two spells of rain within the next two to three days, minus the gusty wind. Even as the rain intensity is likely to be less and distribution a little scattered, these thundershower activities will continue to make the city cooler and pleasant at least in the next four to five days," added Biswas.
The maximum and minimum temperatures will remain below the normal mark, around 32 and 23 degrees, respectively, on Thursday. This month, Kolkata has witnessed at least two squalls where the wind speed went up to 50 kmph and beyond, and three significant nor'wester spells.