Monsoon stronger, more rain on radar

A man rests under a giant umbrella on the Maidan on Sunday afternoon. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

TT, Alipore: It was a rainy Sunday and Monday promises to be rainier.  Strong south-westerly monsoon winds brought widespread rainfall to the city on Sunday. Heavier showers are expected over the next few days, weather officials said.

Clouds and intermittent drizzle kept the maximum temperature at 30.2 degrees Celsius, three notches less than the normal for this time of the year, on Sunday. It was in sharp contrast to the 39.6 degrees Celsius recorded six days ago when the city had been reeling under heatwave-like conditions.

Three cyclonic circulations spread over west Uttar Pradesh, Assam and the north west Bay have been drawing moisture from the sea. That, along with that the flow of the south-westerly monsoon winds which have gained strength, has led to regular cloud formation and rainfall in and around Calcutta.

"The monsoon flow has finally become strong and we expect the northern limit of the south-westerly winds to cover the whole of Bengal in the next 48 hours," said Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, deputy director general, India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.

Heavy rainfall is expected in coastal Bengal and even heavier rainfall in north Bengal, Bandyopadhyay said. Calcutta could receive moderate showers, 20mm-60mm, but the distribution of showers could be skewed as conditions were still not favourable for uniform, widespread distribution of rain, associated with the height of the monsoon.

Sunday's rainfall in Calcutta, too, was unevenly distributed, most if it falling on the southern fringe of the city. The highest rainfall was recorded in Joka (25mm), followed by Patuli (19mm) and Jora Bridge in Santoshpur (8.64mm). Most other parts of the city received between 2mm and 5mm of rainfall. Alipore got just 2mm of rain.

Bandyopadhyay said the rainfall in Calcutta was likely to get heavier but the maximum temperature would rise a little as well.