May 15: Calcuttans today woke up to the hottest morning in 11 months with the minimum temperature touching 28.9 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal.
The discomfort level kept rising as the sun came out and the humidity level soared.
The RealFeel, according to AccuWeather.com, was 53 degrees Celsius in the morning and stayed around the same mark throughout the afternoon. RealFeel indicates the impact of heat and humidity on the skin when one is out in the open.
The sweltering conditions will remain the same tomorrow because the temperature and moisture content in the air will be high, the weatherman said.
Chances of rain are low, he said. The situation will improve and become conducive to rain and thunderstorms on Wednesday and Thursday, he said.
The last time the minimum temperature was higher than today's was on June 12 last year, a day after a heat wave had swept the city, when it touched 30.2 degrees.
Today, the maximum temperature at 36.6 degrees was lower than yesterday's 37.1 degrees. But the discomfort level was high as the minimum relative humidity never dropped below 62 per cent throughout the day.
Yesterday was slightly more comfortable as the minimum relative humidity stayed at 48 per cent. A combination of high maximum temperature and minimum relative humidity would be oppressive, a weather scientist said.
"Oppressive" is the word Angana Roy of Deshapriya Park used to describe the heat as she waited for an app cab at the airport in the afternoon. "It seemed the car AC wasn't working for the first 15 minutes when it was actually working fine," she said.
TEMPERATURE TALE
♦ Minimum temperature: 28.9°C (+2)
♦ Jump since Sunday: 4.7°C
♦ Last hot morning: June 12, last year, 30.2°C (+3)
Source: IMD
Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, deputy director general, India Meteorological Department, Calcutta, said clouding at night didn't allow the heat in the atmosphere to escape and led to the high morning temperature.
"Heat trapped in the atmosphere escapes at night but that could not happen last night because of the clouds... that is why it was so hot," he said. "High humidity worsened the situation."
The body loses heat through sweat. When it evaporates, the skin is left with a cool feeling.
But when humidity is high and there's no wind, like today, the skin remains sweaty and the discomfort level rises.
At present, there was a trough of low pressure in the region joining two cyclonic circulations over eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bangladesh. "This isn't favourable for rain in the city," Bandyopadhyay said.
"This trough is stretching east to west. The wind flows are not favourable for the build up of thunderclouds in and around Calcutta in such situations."
Bandyopadhyay, however, said a north-south trough was expected to form around Wednesday and bring rain to the city. "That trough would be ideal for cloud formation. We expect rain in Calcutta and neighbouring areas on Wednesday and Thursday."
Some western districts in the state received rain today. But the wind direction at the altitude of clouds at that time was in "north-westerly", which resulted in the clouds moving south of Calcutta, denying the city rain or squall.
