Heavy rains wreak havoc in Kolkata

KOLKATA: A deep depression hit Kolkata and Gangetic Bengal early on Monday, triggering heavy rain accompanied by swirling winds that blew at 50-60km an hour and left several parts of the city waterlogged.
The incessant showers that started around 2am on Monday, continued till late evening, resulting in traffic snarls, uprooted trees and damaged buildings across the city.
The Met office has predicted that showers could lose intensity on Tuesday, and the gusty winds could disappear since the depression was moving away in a north-west direction from the city.
The deluge caught both Kolkatans and the weathermen off guard. A cyclonic circulation had been spotted over north Bay of Bengal last week, but it is losing steam.
The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Alipore had not expected the system to develop into a low-pressure, it defied predictions and developed into a depression at 5am on Monday and finally took the shape of a deep depression at 8.30am.
Showers had started lashing the city shortly after midnight. By the time the city woke up on the first day of the week, Kolkata was in the midst of a heavy deluge.
“The depression is moving in a north, north-west direction towards Jharkhand. Even though it will cause rain on Tuesday, the wind is going to be absent. The downpour is likely to be light to moderate in Kolkata and the neighbouring districts across Gangetic Bengal. While the wind speed could lessen on Tuesday, the rain should less intensity,” said GK Das, director, RMC.
The end-of-monsoon rain struck Kolkata and the south Bengal districts with almost equal intensity.
It was between 9am and 11am that the downpour was the heaviest. But even though the showers lost intensity for an hour, another heavy spell followed. The rain continued till late in the evening, with intermittent heavy spells.