First rain in four months pulls down max by 4.4 notches, min below 20°C

Kolkata: A partially cloudy sky and light to moderate showers across the city dragged the maximum temperature down by 3.7 notches below normal on Tuesday. The minimum temperature also dipped slightly. However, Met officials said this mercury dip was only temporary, indicating a gradual rise from Wednesday onwards. There is no chance of further rain, and the sky is expected to be mostly clear on Wednesday.Tuesday was the first rainy day in close to four months for the city. The Alipore Met office recorded 6.3 mm rain till late Tuesday evening. The last time the city received rain was on Oct 30, when the monsoon was retreating. The Alipore Met office had recorded 27.8 mm rain on that day."The cloud cover and the showers pushed the mercury down. The weather, however, will be dry in Kolkata from Wednesday, with no possibility of further rain. The mercury will start shooting up once more, but it is likely to hover around the normal mark in the next three to four days," said meteorologist HR Biswas, head of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.The day temperature was above normal consistently for the past six days, hovering between 30°C and 31°C, but it plunged to 26.8°C, a dip of 4.4 degrees on Tuesday. It is likely to shoot up and reach the 30-degree mark by Wednesday. The minimum temperature also came down below 20°C after two days. At 19.2°C, it was 0.3 degrees below normal.The warm and moist southerly and south-easterly wind from the Bay of Bengal has been injected moisture into the land over the past few days. Along with a trough line from Gangetic Bengal to north coastal Andhra, it triggered rain in Kolkata and many other south Bengal districts, including Howrah, South 24 Parganas, and North 24 Parganas.Met officials said the wind pattern was changing, and the city had started getting the dry westerly wind system. Even as the mercury starts rising, low humidity will not make the heat unbearable for now."Moisture is not flowing in any longer from the Bay of Bengal due to the change in wind pattern. Therefore, even if the mercury starts rising, low humidity will ensure the weather is pleasant in the next three to four days," added the RMC Kolkata head.In the past one-and-a-half decade, Kolkata always got some amount of rain in Feb, barring 2023 and 2018. Last year, the city got 47.8 mm in Feb, with 47.7 mm on Feb 21 alone.