One or two spells of localised showers notwithstanding, the city was back to being hot and humid on Monday.
The Met office recorded a maximum temperature of 35.6 degrees Celsius in Alipore, three notches above normal. The minimum relative humidity was 61 per cent, meaning the moisture content in the atmosphere was above 60 per cent for the better part of the day.
The result: Calcuttans sweated and fretted throughout the day. People who had the luxury of staying indoors were slightly better.
The readings at the Alipore Met office serve as the official figures for Calcutta. But in Behala, around 2pm, the website of AccuWeather, a US-based forecasting agency, showed a temperature of 37 degrees and a RealFeel (an index that describes how the temperature actually feels like) of 48 degrees.
Some parts of central and north Calcutta got some rain in the afternoon. But the showers did little to bring relief.
The Met forecast did not offer any hope.
"The temperature and the humidity are likely to be on the higher side for the next few days. Some localised showers are not ruled out. But there is very little chance of any significant relief from the sultry conditions," said G.K. Das, director, Indian Meteorological Department, Calcutta.
The surge in Celsius follows a wet spell caused by a shift in the position of the monsoon trough, which was passing right across Calcutta into the Bay of Bengal in end-June.
Between June 27 and June 28, the city was lashed by the season's heaviest showers. The overcast conditions that lasted for much of last week had kept the Celsius in check.
"Now, the monsoon trough passes through Daltonganj (in Jharkhand) and Digha into the northwest Bay of Bengal. A cyclonic circulation that was over central parts of Uttar Pradesh now lies over northwest Uttar Pradesh and extends up to 5.8km above the mean sea level," said a Met official.
"The trough is causing some rain in East Midnapore. But the bulk of the moisture is headed towards north Bengal, causing rain in the sub-Himalayan parts of Bengal. Monsoon conditions are weak over south Bengal," he said.
A system over the northwest, northeast or north Bay of Bengal can help in the descent of the trough, which in turn is expected to make the monsoon currents stronger in Calcutta and adjoining areas, said Met officials.