Exactly a week ago, both the maximum and minimum temperatures in Calcutta were way below normal.
The tables have turned. The scorching note that March is ending on has Calcuttans dreading what the peak summer months have in store.
The overhead sun has been cruel for the past few days. The occasional reprieve in the form of thunderstorms has been missing since Holi on Monday.
The result: Calcuttans have been sweating and fretting, and praying for a squall.
The Met forecast does not offer any relief. If March-end has been hot, April will start on an even hotter note, according to the weather office.
Thunderstorms are not ruled out but the relief they bring will be very brief, said Met officials.
On Friday, the maximum temperature in Alipore was around 35 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal. The minimum was 27.5, three degrees above normal.
By Monday, the Celsius may touch 37.
March 29 was a public holiday on account of Good Friday. But parks and museums, where people usually visit on holidays, were as good as empty.
Around 2pm on Friday, two women walked along Chowringhee, the dupatta of one covering the faces of both. The website of AccuWeather, a US-based forecasting agency, showed a temperature of 35 degrees. The RealFeel was 41 degrees.
In front of the Victoria Memorial, a mother used a miniature fan, almost a toy, to comfort the baby in her arms.
Hats sold briskly, as did ice-creams, chilled water and beverages.
A Met official said the weather was not abnormal.
“We are approaching April. The conditions are uncomfortable but not unusual. People are feeling more uncomfortable because of the cool phase in late March. The change in the conditions is making the weather seem unbearable,” said G.K. Das, director, India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.
Multiple weather systems combined to bring in consistently overcast conditions to Calcutta after March 19. The clouds, rain and winds dragged the Celsius remarkably down.
Incessant overnight rain and overcast conditions dragged the maximum temperature down to 21.1 degrees on March 20, the second-lowest Calcutta has seen in over 50 years.
The minimum was 18.7 degrees, five notches below normal. The minimal difference between the two meant the afternoon was unusually cool.
Jackets, hoodies and pullovers were spotted frequently, besides raincoats and umbrellas, on the city’s roads on Wednesday last week.
The effect lingered on for a few days. On March 21, the maximum temperature in Calcutta was 28.8 degrees, six notches below normal. The minimum was 20, four notches below normal.
But that seems like a distant past now.
“The Celsius is likely to touch 36-37 degrees by Monday,” said a Met official.
The lack of enough moisture from the Bay of Bengal is hurting the prospects of thunderstorm activities in a uniform manner, the official said.
“There is no high-pressure zone over the Bay that can feed significant moisture into the land which is already heated. The moisture level in the atmosphere is enough to cause sweating but not enough to create tall and dark clouds,” he said.