Kolkata: The southwest monsoon bid adieu to Kolkata on Monday. The Met office expects the monsoon to withdraw from the rest of the state in a day or two. While the Met office expects the city to continue to remain dry on Tuesday too, it has not ruled out the possibility of some post-monsoon light rain on Wednesday.“The monsoon has withdrawn from Kolkata and north Bengal completely, and has also withdrawn from many parts of south Bengal. In fact the South West monsoon is expected to fully withdraw from across all states within the next two to three days,” said HR Biswas, head at Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.Climatologically, the withdrawal of the monsoon from Kolkata between the first and second weeks of Oct is considered normal.This year, the southwest monsoon arrived in the city on June 12. While June ended with a rain surplus, with a monthly rain count of 364.6 mm, the July rain count at 340.8 mm was a bit below normal. But with bumper rain in both Aug and Sept, when the city logged 424.4 mm and 589.2 mm of rain, Kolkata received a surplus of around 28% till Sept end.After the monsoon departs, tropical cyclones often originate in Bay of Bengal between Oct and Dec in addition to smaller systems like low-pressure areas, which often bring post-monsoon rain. This Oct the city has logged close to 60 mm of rain.The Met radar, however, has not detected any such system that would affect the city for now.“Though there is the possibility of a low pressure area formation by Tuesday, the system is likely to form in the southern part of Bay of Bengal, far enough from our region for causing any direct impact. While there is no possibility for heavy rain, we might get some light rain on Wednesday,” added Biswas.
