Kolkata: The rain spells on Tuesday could only be a prelude to wetter days ahead. The Alipore weather office has predicted increased rainfall activities from Wednesday. The showers also pushed the maximum temperature below the normal mark after it remained above normal in the past four days.
Even as the Met office clarified that a well-marked low-pressure area over the west-central and adjoining north-west Bay of Bengal and north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts, which concentrated into a depression, has no direct impact on the land area in the state, the monsoon trough is likely to shift towards Bengal and bring rain to Kolkata and parts of south Bengal.
"Due to a strong moisture incursion from the Bay and the anticipated shift of the monsoon trough towards Bengal, rainfall activity is likely to increase over the districts of Bengal with heavy rainfall at one or two places," said a special weather bulletin from IMD.
While the rain spells in Kolkata are expected to be moderate, the Met office has already predicted some intense rain warnings for neighbouring South and North 24 Parganas between Thursday and Saturday. "As of now, the rainfall activity in Kolkata is likely to be moderate. But we are keeping a close watch on the developing systems that would have an impact on the city. We will upgrade our city weather forecast as and when there is a change," said Met scientist Sourish Bandyopadhyay of Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata.
Between the evening of Monday and Tuesday, the city received 21.6 mm of rain, caused by local thunderclouds. The maximum temperature dropped to 30.6 degrees, 1.4 notches below normal on Tuesday. Unlike July, when the city encountered intermittent rain frequently, the Aug rain so far has been below normal. Met officials said that rain triggered due to the monsoon trough, or systems like a low-pressure area, are often more uniform with coverage and higher intensity.