Thursday was marked by intermittent but uniform rain across the city and most of south Bengal, under the influence of a low-pressure area over the northwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining Odisha coastline.
The Met office recorded just under 10mm of rain in Alipore between Thursday night and Friday night.
It was typical monsoon rain — not heavy but nagging. The sun made occasional and brief appearances. The spread and volume of the rain may dip over the next couple of days, but will most likely rise again from next week, said a Met official.
Another low-pressure area is expected to take shape around June 29, the official said.
Monsoon rain in lower Gangetic Bengal is dependent on low-pressure systems over the northern parts of the Bay of Bengal. Last year, the first half of the monsoon saw a significant deficit in Calcutta because of the lack of such weather systems. But so far this year, the conditions have been different.
The current low-pressure area is tipped to head northwest, said a Met bulletin issued on Thursday.
“It is likely to move west-northwestwards across north Odisha and adjoining Gangetic Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Under its influence, light to moderate rainfall at most places with isolated heavy rainfall is very likely in some districts of south Bengal
during the next two days,” it said.
On Friday, heavy rain (7-11 cm) is likely in North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, East Burdwan, West Burdwan and Hooghly districts. “Thunderstorms with gusty winds (speed reaching 30-40kmph) and lightning are expected across south Bengal.
The Met office recorded a maximum temperature of 31.4 degrees Celsius, around a notch below normal. At 26.8 degrees Celsius, the minimum was usual for this time of
the year.