Siliguri, May 18: A cloudy sky and a drop in temperature caused by a sudden shower of hail, accompanied by strong winds and a little rain, in the afternoon made for a very pleasing Sunday in Siliguri.

The temperature came down by more than three degrees from the day’s highest of 32 degrees Celsius as people in Siliguri and the surrounding areas watched on TV the Eden Gardens heating up for the clash between Kolkata Knight Riders and the Chennai Superkings.

“The thunder squall was because of local disturbance caused by the influence of a north-south trough over Bengal,” Subir Sarkar, in-charge of the North Bengal University’s weather station, said.

Although the clouds began gathering from around 11 in the morning, by 2pm, the sun was almost invisible by the low, dense cumulonimbus clouds. As winds at 35kmph did their best to disperse the clouds, at 2.30pm, hail the size of marbles rained for about 10 minutes.

Being a holiday, children made use of most of the sudden “ice from the skies”, collecting the hail in whatever containers they could lay their hands on. “I will keep it in the freezer of my fridge for as long as possible,” said Debika Ghosh, a nine-year-old resident off Church Road.

“There will be a drop in the night temperatures by one-two degrees,” Sarkar said. Today’s minimum temperature was recorded at 22.5 degrees Celsius, although precipitation was only 5mm.

“It was a perfect weather for the weekend,” Chaitali Dan, a resident of Pradhan Nagar, said. “After experiencing the heat of Calcutta, where I had been a few days ago, Siliguri’s weather today is thoroughly blissful,” she added.

While the hailstorm brought relief to the residents, as it is time for cha, shingara and a lot of addas, it did not make any difference to the makers of the cup that cheers.

“We need good rainfall to boost production, which is very low this time,” Mohini Das, secretary of the Terai Indian Planters’ Association, said. “There is a shortfall of about 10-15 per cent in production and such scattered rainfall in the region over the past few days does not make any difference,” he added.

According to the figures with Indian Meteorological Department, the pre-monsoon rainfall (between March 1 and May 14) in sub-Himalayan Bengal this year was 265 mm, marginally less than the normal 273 mm.