Monsoon likely to be delayed

TT, June 6: The arrival of the monsoon in the city is likely to be delayed this year, like the past few years, prolonging the trial by sweat and heat.

The delay in the monsoon's arrival became all but certain today, when the maximum temperature touched 37.7 degrees Celsius, the highest this month.

June 8 is the normal date for the arrival of the monsoon in Calcutta. It has not yet reached north Bengal, which is why the Alipore weather office has predicted a delay.

"The monsoon winds will reach north Bengal in the next 72 hours. Only after that will we be able to say when the monsoon is expected in Calcutta," said Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, deputy director general, India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.

"After covering half the north-eastern states, the northern limit of the south-west monsoon has remained stuck for a few days. This is the arm of the monsoon that comes to Calcutta," Bandyopadhyay said.

The monsoon winds reached Kerala a day before the usual date of June 1 but their progress has been slow since then.

The last time the monsoon had arrived in the city on time was 2013. Since then, it has been reaching Calcutta between June 17 and 19.

Heavy and prolonged showers generally do not occur in the city before the arrival of the monsoon, which continues till the second week of October.

The city has got a drizzle just once in the past seven days - last Friday, when there was 0.8mm of rainfall. According to the weather office, conditions are slowly becoming favourable for showers although a heavy downpour of the kind that lowers the temperature for a day or two is not on the radar.

Bandyopadhyay said weather conditions in the city are always uncomfortable from May 15 onwards as the south-westerly wind blowing from the Bay of Bengal increases the humidity while temperatures are still quite high because of the dry and hot north-westerly winds.

Pre-monsoon showers are the only hope in this period but they have been all but absent this year.

"There is a cyclonic circulation over Jharkhand and a trough of low pressure on the surface level from Punjab to Odisha. These weather systems are pulling moisture from the Bay of Bengal, leading to cloud formation and the possibility of rain," said Bandyopadhyay.

The cloud cover and the decreased minimum relative humidity - down to 44 from 60 per cent yesterday - ensured that today's RealFeel, calculated by weather portal AccuWeather.com, fell from 53 to 47 degrees Celsius.