Rain not in sight, heat to stay

TT, May 20: Calcutta recorded a maximum temperature of 37 degrees Celsius today but it felt like 50 degrees because the minimum relative humidity was almost 20 notches higher than yesterday.

And to make matters worse, the Met office has ruled out chances of rain over the next two days.

Today, the discomfort level kept rising as the sun came out and it was no better even in the evening.

The RealFeel, according to AccuWeather.com, was 50 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.

RealFeel indicates the impact of heat and humidity on the skin when one is out in the open.

"The roads would have been deserted had it not been for the Group D Staff recruitment exam," a traffic sergeant in Shyambazar said.

Another officer in Chowringhee said he had asked for two extra bottles of drinking water.

"Riding my bike felt like torture. Waiting at signals was worse," Rajdeep Sarkar, a marketing executive with a private insurance company who rode to Salt Lake from his New Alipore office, said.

Today's maximum temperature (37 degrees) was less than yesterday's 38.6 degrees Celsius. But the effect of the dip was offset by the rise in the minimum relative humidity, from 40 per cent yesterday to 59 per cent today.

Two factors are to blame for the rise in humidity, a Met official said.

A cyclonic circulation over south Chhattisgarh and adjoining Odisha and a trough of low pressure generating from this system and stretching till coastal Andhra Pradesh led to the rise in the minimum relative humidity, the official said.

"More moisture-laden air has been entering Bengal because of these two systems," Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, deputy director general, India Meteorology Department, Calcutta, said.

The formation of a new system that could bring rain to the city is unlikely for the next 48 hours, he said.

"If anything, the weather could get drier.The two systems are likely to weaken from tomorrow. So, the next few days could be drier. But the heat is going to stay."

Mornings are relatively easier on other days, Soumik Roy of Golf Green said. "But today it felt like noon at 7.30am."

The increased humidity was the main culprit for making the weather so uncomfortable, the Met official said.

"Sweating is the body's mechanism of losing heat. When sweat evaporates from the skin, it leaves behind a cool feeling," a weather scientist said.

"But this doesn't happen when the minimum relative humidity is high. So, the body tends to sweat more making one feel uncomfortable."