Kolkata: Despite being lashed by a squall on Friday night, the city remained warm and humid, with the maximum temperature touching 34.8°C on Saturday. While it will continue to be warm during the day, with the maximum temperature hovering around 35°C in Kolkata till at least Tuesday, chances of thunderstorms and rain were high due to the approaching southwest monsoon, said the Met office. A bulletin issued by the Regional Meteorological Centre on Saturday said: “Southwest monsoon has advanced into some parts of southeast Arabian Sea, southwest and southeast Bay of Bengal, many parts of Andaman Sea, entire Nicobar Islands, and some parts of Andaman Islands, including Sri Vijay Puram…”. It added that in view of the favourable wind pattern and strong moisture incursion from Bay of Bengal, enhanced thunderstorm and associated activities are very likely to occur over the districts of north Bengal during May 16-18. Thunderstorm, lightning and gusty wind reaching a speed of 40-50 kmph struck various districts of south Bengal, including Jhargram, Bankura, Burdwan, North 24 Parganas, Hoogly, Nadia and West Midnapore, on Saturday. Light to moderate rain and thunderstorms are likely to continue across south Bengal on Sunday and Monday as well, said the bulletin.Purulia, Birbhum, Murshidabad, West Burdwan, Jhargram, North 24 Parganas and Nadia could be lashed by thunderstorms from Sunday to Wednesday. North Bengal is set to receive more severe thunderstorms over the next six days from May 17. An alert for heavy to very heavy rain has been issued for Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri on Sunday. Heavy rain is likely at one or two places in Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and Kalimpong. All north Bengal districts could receive thunderstorms and lightning on Sunday. Light to moderate rain and thunderstorms are likely to continue till May 22.
