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If rain made the Royal Calcutta Turf Club racetrack too risky for the thoroughbreds lined up for the season’s much-awaited derby, it seemed to add to the allure of the mist-laden Dhakuria Lakes that hosted the race for the Bairds Trophy at the Calcutta Regatta 2012 after a two-hour delay because of low visibility. Picture by Sayantan Ghosh
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A damp and dull Sunday marked by more rain than the January mean saw the daytime Celsius dip five degrees below normal, keeping the holiday crowd indoors and hurrying the derby horses back to the stable to race another day.
Morning was as monsoon-like as it was misty, the combination of rain and fog making for bleak, cold-day conditions that stayed right through. The freakiness of the weather was reflected in the minimum temperature of 18.9 degrees Celsius, five notches above normal.
According to the weatherman, a difference of only 2.3 degrees between the below-normal maximum of 21.2 degrees and the above-normal minimum ensured that Calcuttans didn’t feel the difference.
What spoilt the Sunday for many was the rain. The mean rainfall in Calcutta for the whole of January is 11.7mm, but the city received 12.7mm of rain over 24 hours till 8.30am on Sunday. The rain resumed around 8 in the evening, raising the prospect of Monday being just as damp.
Nine winter races at the Royal Calcutta Turf Club, including The Eveready Calcutta Derby Stakes, were cancelled after the racetrack became too slushy to risk injury to horse and jockey. The Calcutta derby is the blue-riband race of the season, carrying a prize of around Rs 1 crore.
“The rain made the ground very soft. Had the races been held, clumps of earth would have come off, making the turf dangerous for the horses and jockeys after a few rounds. Unlike our monsoon tracks, our winter tracks are not built to handle too much rain, so we had to call it off,” Jayant Jaipal Singh, the CEO of the turf club, told Metro.
The Calcutta derby has always been a popular event in the city’s winter calendar and this year’s turnout was set to be a huge one, going by the record 23,000 crowd count at the New Year Races, in association with The Telegraph.
The postponed races, including the signature derby, have been rescheduled to January 15. “A lot of people had turned up at the turf club today as well. They returned disappointed not just because the derby was cancelled, but also for their day’s outing being spoilt by the weather,” Jaipal Singh said.
Another popular winter event, the race for the Bairds Trophy at the ARAE-FEARA Calcutta Regatta 2012, hosted by Calcutta Rowing Club in association with The Telegraph, had to be pushed back by two hours because of poor visibility.
For some, the beauty of the Dhakuria Lakes clothed in mist made up for the delay. “I reached the club around 9am and the horizon was barely visible. It is the best I have seen the lake look,” said rower S.R. Kalidas.
Amusement parks and Alipore zoo, which are usually packed on Sundays, wore a weekday look with the rain-wary crowds staying away. Zoo officials said the Sunday footfall dropped 60 per cent because of the weather.
“In January, we receive between 45,000 and 50,000 visitors on all Sundays. Today, we did not sell more than 20,000 tickets,” an official said.
Gokul Chandra Debnath, the director of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore, said the weather would remain almost the same over the next 24 hours.
The forecast includes rain and fog in Calcutta and South 24-Parganas along with some other parts of the state. “There is also a warning for fog that Sagar Mela pilgrims should be cautious about,” Debnath said.
Satellite pictures showed a cyclonic circulation over Jharkhand and parts of south Bengal, which the weatherman said was bringing in moisture from the Bay of Bengal.
The moisture in the air was the reason for high humidity in the city and its suburbs.
On Sunday, minimum relative humidity was as high as 87 per cent. “Unless the moisture dissipates, Calcutta won’t have a sunny day,” a weather scientist said.
A sunny day at this time of the year usually follows a cold morning and makes way for a chilly night.
Winter had come late to the city this time, only to make up for it with a rapid descent down the Celsius charts.
Minimum temperatures were a shade above 10 degrees in the run-up to Christmas, but the chill disappeared just as fast in the last week of December with Cyclone Thane blocking the North Wind.
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