Kolkata: After four days of mostly clear and sunny skies, intense rain pounded parts of the city on Thursday. Met officials have not ruled out such localised parting showers before the monsoon bids adieu by the second week of Oct at the latest. While the rain spells could be sharp, they are likely to be short as the Met office spies no significant weather system over the Bay that could trigger widespread and heavy rain.Even as the city woke up to a sunny morning on Thursday, thick clouds developed over Kolkata’s sky as the day progressed. Heavy rain started lashing parts of the city a little before noon. The shower led to instant flooding in northern pockets, including Salt Lake, Lake Town and Dum Dum. The Met office recorded around 80 mm of rainfall in Dum Dum. Localities in southern and central Kolkata, however, were spared, with light rain.“Such types of showers are quite normal when the monsoon is about to retreat. The moisture incursion along with day-time heating can cause local cloud development, including some powerful cumulonimbus clouds, building up within a short span of time and triggering an intense spell. Such a type of isolated rain in pockets in Kolkata and across south Bengal will continue for at least the next four to five days in between sunny spells,” said HR Biswas, head at the Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.Despite an average deficit of around 13% rain across India this monsoon, Kolkata has logged a 28% rain surplus. June to September are considered active monsoon months while the southwest monsoon normally departs from Bengal between the first and second weeks of October.“The monsoon withdrawal line is expected to touch parts of neighbouring Bihar and Jharkhand in eastern India in the next 48 hours. Hence, we have to wait for a couple of days to see when it starts departing from our region,” added Biswas.
