A clouded Darjeeling sky on Wednesday when the temperature dropped to 4 degrees Celsius; and (above) a woman and a boy take shelter under an umbrella in Siliguri. Pictures by Suman Tamang and Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, Feb. 8: Sudden showers in the Himalayan foothills and Sikkim today brought a chill in the air making people scramble for umbrellas and the extra woollens that had been tucked away for sometime.

Weather experts said the sudden rainfall was a result of the western disturbance passing over the region and that the upper reaches of the state and Sikkim might experience snowfall later this week.

“The western disturbance has approached the region from Jammu and Kashmir. It was crossing northern UP yesterday but is now passing over north Bengal and Sikkim. This has resulted in sudden showers in different areas and a dip in the day temperature,” said Indranil Sengupta, the assistant meteorological officer at the Regional Meteorological Office in Jalpaiguri.

The temperature recorded in the past five days had shown a rise and the average maximum temperature was 25 degrees Celsius.

But after the showers today, the maximum temperature dropped to 23.8 degrees.

Weather experts said although the dip was not much, a chilly condition existed throughout the day because of the rainfall and cold wind. “There is not much dip in temperature but yet we feel cold. This is because there has been some rainfall and windy conditions are prevailing over sub-Himalayan West Bengal,” said Sengupta.

This morning, there were moderate showers in Siliguri, Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong and some parts of Sikkim.

“The cloudy weather is likely to remain for the next 48 to 72 hours after which the western disturbance will cross over to the northeastern states. It is likely that rainfall will be experienced in some areas of Sikkim and snowfall may occur in the higher altitudes in the next two days. It was drizzling in Gangtok this morning but the place received moderate showers accompanied by thunder in the afternoon,” G.N. Raha, the in-charge of the Meteorological Centre in Gangtok, told The Telegraph over the phone from Sikkim.

“Winter in the foothills gets over by February end and this is signified by the gradual increase in both the minimum and maximum temperatures. By the end of this month, both day and night temperatures will increase to nearly 27 degrees Celsius and 14 degrees respectively,” Sengupta said.

The average normal minimum temperature at night has increased from 11 degrees Celsius in January to 12 degrees Celsius this month and the average normal maximum temperature had risen from 23 degrees Celsius last month to 24 degree Celsius in February.

Sengupta added that in the past five days, the day temperatures remained near normal at 25 degrees Celsius while the night temperatures had risen. The normal minimum night temperature at this time of the year is 12 degrees Celsius.

“The day temperature has been slightly above the normal and the night temperatures have shown an increase in the past five days. The rise in night temperature is because of the cloud cover that prevents heat from escaping. The chill during the day today was also because of the cloud, which did not allow the sunlight to reach (the earth’s surface). We can expect a rise in temperature after the western disturbance passes,” Sengupta said.

He added that it might snow in Darjeeling later this week. “Darjeeling is not new to snowfall in February. It had snowed once on February 14. We wouldn’t mind another bout of snowfall,” Nima Sherpa, a resident of Lebong said.

The hill town had seen snowfall on Valentine’s Day in 2007.