Monsoon May Arrive In Kolkata Between Today And Saturday | Kolkata News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India
Author: Sumati Yengkhom

Kolkata: The monsoon cloud columns from the Bay of Bengal have started inching towards the land, signalling that the wait for monsoon could be over within the next two days. With its arrival this year already delayed like last year, the Met office has predicted that southwest monsoon will hit the city and other parts of south Bengal any time between Thursday and Saturday.

"The satellite images are showing monsoon clouds approaching land. The condition is now favourable for monsoon to arrive in south Bengal as well. We expect rain to hit south Bengal any time between Thursday and Saturday," said H R Biswas, head of the weather section at RMC Kolkata.

On Wednesday, the city remained mostly cloudy. Weather scientists said this is one feature of the monsoon cloud. In some pockets, including Alipore and Dum Dum, there was some drizzle. The wind pattern on the lower level is southwest-southerly, another influencing factor for monsoon to arrive. Met officials said any spell of light to moderate rain will usher in monsoon.

The usual arrival of monsoon in Kolkata and other parts of south Bengal is between June 10 and 11 under normal conditions, with an error margin of four days. In the past decade, monsoon has kept to its usual date with the city only on four years. While it has never hit the city earlier than the expected date in the past decade, this year it hit north Bengal on May 31, ahead of the expected June 5-6 date. Since then, it didn't move for days, delaying its advancement to south Bengal.

With the delayed monsoon and the absence of any significant pre-moonsoon shower, the city is already suffering from high rain deficit. Climatologically, Kolkata should get rain on 12.6 days in June. But this month has had only on two-three rainy days so far.

"The normal rain count for Kolkata in June is 282.2 mm, and for south Bengal it is 247.9 mm. For the city, the rain deficit for June is about 96% while for the rest of south Bengal it is 65%," said Sourish Bandyopadhyay, weather scientist at RMC Kolkata.

The cloud cover on Wednesday pushed the mercury down close to the normal mark. The maximum temperature at 34.4°C was 0.6°C above normal while the minimum at 30.4°C was three notches above normal.

Both night and day temperatures are expected to slide further and hover around 33°C and 28°C on Thursday.