A day that felt like a cauldron was capped by a Met forecast that the entire city had been praying for — the thunderstorms are coming.
“A cyclonic circulation lies over north Bangladesh and neighbourhood at 0.9 km above mean sea level. Strong moisture incursion is very likely from the Bay of Bengal.... thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds are likely to commence from the evening of April 6,” said a Met bulletin issued on Saturday afternoon.
The city had not received rain till 11pm on Saturday.
H.R. Biswas, the director of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore, told The Telegraph on Saturday evening: “Thunderstorms are likely in north Bengal from Saturday. In Kolkata, some scattered streaks of lighting, gusty winds and a drizzle or two may happen late into the night. But uniform and widespread thunderstorms are more likely from Sunday onwards”.
The morning and afternoon on Saturday felt even hotter than the past few days. Around 11.45am, the website of AccuWeather, a US-based forecasting agency, showed a temperature reading of 37 degrees Celsius in Salt Lake. The RealFeel was 45 degrees.
The Met office recorded a maximum temperature of 37.4 degrees in Alipore, around two notches above normal.
The current few days of the scorching spell were relatively drier. But the relative humidity started climbing from Thursday. So did the discomfort index.
Around 1.30pm on Saturday, a bus was stopped at the red light on Kidderpore Road. A motorcyclist was trailing the bus. The two-wheeler also braked but at least 15m away, under the shade of a tree. Shades of trees were the coveted spot for motorists parking in the Maidan area.
Around 2pm, Chowringhee was deserted. Pedestrians across the city shielded themselves as much as they could.
If the Met forecast holds good, relief is on its way.
“On Sunday, thunderstorms with squally winds (speed reaching 50-60 kmph) and lightning are likely to occur at one or two places over Purulia, Bankura, East and West Burdwan, East and West Midnapore and Birbhum districts. Thunderstorms with lightning and gusty wind (speed reaching 30-40 kmph) are likely to occur over the remaining districts,” said the bulletin.
“On Monday, thunderstorms with lightning and gusty wind (speed reaching 40-50 kmph) are likely to occur at one or two places over East and West Midnapore, North and South 24-Parganas, Nadia, Hooghly, Howrah, Bankura, and Purulia districts. Thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds (speed reaching 30-40 kmph) are likely to occur at one or two places over the remaining districts,” the bulletin added.
The lack of moisture from the Bay of Bengal, which had scuttled the chances of thunderstorms over the past week, was attributed by Met officials to the position of an anticyclone on the Bay. Till Thursday, a bulk of the moisture from the system was headed towards Assam and Tripura, triggering widespread rain in northeastern parts of India.
“The low level anticyclone over the east central Bay of Bengal is likely to gradually strengthen and move
northwestwards towards northwest Bay of Bengal from today,” a Met official said on Saturday.
Northwest Bay of Bengal is closer to the Odisha and Bengal coastline.