Kolkata: The nor’wester season is on in the city with Kolkata’s first brush with a squall on Monday night. Thunder, lighting, rain accompanied by gusty wind swept across the city, minutes after the Met office issued a red alert for Kolkata, neighbouring Howrah and South 24 Parganas. Alipore weather office recorded a powerful thundersquall with the wind speed reaching 72 kmph at 9.16 pm. A combination of the gusty wind and the rain spell dragged the mercury down by close to six degrees instantly. On Monday, the city recorded a maximum temperature of 32.9°. Within minutes of the onset of thunderstorm activities, the mercury plummeted to around 26°. The Monday night spell, which began around 9 pm, hit all parts of the city evenly. Sources said some pockets in Kolkata encountered some waterlogging during the rain spell that went on for more than an hour.Though Kolkata had a prelude to the nor’wester on Sunday night itself, the city received only light rain the previous night. Despite strong and sustained winds sweeping across the city, Alipore had recorded only 0.1 mm of rain on Sunday.The Met officials said that while chances of thundershower will diminish from Tuesday, there is possibility of renewed rain activities from Friday. “Though chances of thundershowers in the city will be reduced from Tuesday, we can expect renewed rain possibility from Friday,” said meteorologist H R Biswas, head of the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) Kolkata.The Met officials said that strong moisture incursion and favourable wind pattern at the lower level had triggered powerful thundercloud formation. At present, Kolkata is getting the south westerly or southerly wind system at the lower level. In addition, there is also a western disturbance passing through the northern region around Nepal, which was also a factor triggering the rain in parts of southern districts and North Bengal. Meteorologists said that while nor’wester spells and squalls are more common during April and May, before the onset of pre-monsoon showers, such spells can happen in March due to certain favourable weather conditions.“By Tuesday, the wind pattern is likely to change to the westerly system when the wind speed will also reduce along with the chance of rain. The mercury could be rising slightly till the next rain spell,” Biswas said.Met officials said that as the wind is reducing the heating, the weather will be bearable despite the slight rise. In addition to Kolkata, Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas and some other southern districts also received thundershowers.
