A bright and sunny Thursday morning in Calcutta hinted at change, but the clear skies didn’t last.
By 1pm, dark clouds took over, and rain followed soon after. The first spell was brief but sharp, followed by intermittent showers under an overcast sky.
The rain was not uniform across the city. Around 1.30pm, Jodhpur Park and Southern Avenue saw people scurrying for cover. A girl returning from school and a woman with her were seen boarding a rickshaw on a bylane, all three shielded under umbrellas. Meanwhile, Ballygunge Phari barely witnessed a drizzle.
The minimum relative humidity was 76% — high for this time of year — while the maximum temperature was 31.5° Celsius, slightly below the usual mark.
More rain is likely in the city over the next few days, a Met official said. Light to moderate rainfall and the occasional thunderstorm are expected in south Bengal for at least a couple more days. The showers are expected to lose steam next week.
A fresh system is expected to develop over the Bay of Bengal on Friday, but it is unlikely to have much impact on Calcutta.
The coastal districts — Calcutta, North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, and East and West Midnapore — are more likely to receive rain, according to the forecast.
In contrast, north Bengal saw a decline in showers on Thursday, and the sky there is likely to clear up in the coming days.
The current showers in Calcutta are being caused by thunderclouds formed due to a convergence of dry and moist winds, the Met official explained.
“Dry winds are coming from the northwest, where the monsoon has retreated. An upper air cyclonic circulation over south Bangladesh and the neighbourhood persists. A trough runs from south Odisha to Tamil Nadu across coastal Andhra Pradesh. As a result, there is significant moisture incursion from the Bay,” the official said.
The retreat of the monsoon is underway in northern, western, and parts of central India.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a bulletin that the monsoon will withdraw from Gujarat and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in a day or two. However, the line of withdrawal is still away from the east.
The end of the monsoon is marked by the arrival of winds from north India and the gradual receding of winds from the Bay. But in south Bengal, winds from the Bay currently remain dominant due to the active system.
The date of the monsoon’s retreat from Bengal remains uncertain.