The Celsius shot up in Kolkata on Sunday before evening showers in some places brought a temporary relief.
The Met office recorded a maximum temperature of 37 degrees Celsius in Alipore on Sunday, three notches above normal. On Saturday, the maximum temperature was around 32 degrees, thanks to the rain the day before.
On Sunday, the roads were less crowded compared with a weekday. But people who stepped out either carried an umbrella or covered their head and faces with clothes.
The Maidan was deserted in the afternoon. A long queue of empty horse-drawn carriages was spotted near the Victoria Memorial. Traffic cops were seen splashing water on their faces every now and then.
But occasional streaks of lightning lit up the evening sky. Showers were reported from Kasba, Kaikhali, VIP Road and some other areas after 7.30pm.
The showers were preceded by gusts of wind in some areas. A squall that clocked 67kmph and lasted a minute was recorded at Dum Dum around 7.25pm, the Met office said.
The rain was not as widespread as the showers the city received on Friday afternoon.
The next couple of days are likely to be “very hot”, too, said a Met official. He did not rule out chances of thunderstorms in Kolkata.
“The bulk of the moisture from the Bay of Bengal is headed to north Bengal. But some moisture is entering south Bengal as well,” he said.
The monsoon should set foot in north Bengal in the next 48 hours, he said.
Usually, it takes around a couple of days for the monsoon to reach south Bengal after it reaches north Bengal. June 8 is the usual monsoon onset date for Kolkata, with an error margin of a few days.
A low-pressure area on the Bay of Bengal near the Myanmar coast had led to cloudy conditions in Kolkata on Friday. The showers that followed cooled the parched city. As a result, the temperature did not shoot up on Saturday.
“But the system has died. There was no cloud cover to shield the sun on Sunday,” said the Met official.“There is a cyclonic circulation over Bihar, but that is helping in moisture incursion towards north Bengal,” he said.