The sky on Saturday will remain cloudy in parts but rain is unlikely, the Met office has said.
Cyclone Midhili made its landfall near Khepupara in Bangladesh on Friday, farther away from Calcutta than was expected earlier.
The sky will start to clear from Sunday when a two-three degrees Celsius drop in night temperature is expected.
There was only a sprinkle of rain on Friday. The Met office had predicted light to moderate rain. A Met official said Calcutta escaped the rain primarily because the landfall of the cyclone was about 50km farther than was expected.
On Thursday, the Met office said the cyclone was likely to hit land between Mongla and Khepupara in Bangladesh. But on Friday, the actual landfall took place at Khepupara.
The Met office also said on Thursday that the deep depression on the Bay of Bengal was tipped to intensify into a cyclone and make landfall in Bangladesh early on Saturday. The deep depression intensified into a cyclone by Friday morning and made the landfall on Friday afternoon, earlier than expected.
“We expected the landfall of the cyclone to take place between Mongla and Khepupara. But the landfall took place at Khepupara, which is about 50km east of what we expected. This is farther away from Calcutta and the primary reason why the city received very light rainfall, instead of light to moderate rain,” said G.K. Das, the director (weather) of India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.
Mongla is a small port town in the Khulna division. Khepupara is in the Barisal division. Both are over 300km from Kolkata.
Das said that the forecast on Thursday mentioned that there will be no direct impact of the Cyclone on Calcutta. But the rainfall that was predicted under the influence of the Cyclone did not happen as the Cyclone hit land more eastwards.
The weather in the city was also very windy on Friday. According to the weatherman, a lot of dry northwesterly winds came into the city.
The Alipore Met office said that Cyclone Midhili hit the started to make landfall around 3pm IST on Friday and it was over by 7pm.
This is the second cyclone on the Bay in less than a month after Cyclone Hamoon, which hit land in Bangladesh on October 25.
“The sky will partly cloudy on Saturday. It will become clearer on Sunday. We are expecting a 2 to 3 degrees celsius drop in temperature on Sunday. There is likely to be a one degree celsius drop in temperature on Saturday,”
A bulletin issued by the Alipore Met office on Friday evening forecast light rain in some districts neighbouring Calcutta. “The existing system is unlikely to cause rain in Calcutta,” Das said.
The maximum temperature on Friday was 27.4 degrees Celsisus, three degrees below normal. The minimum temperature was 23.6 degrees Celsius, four degrees more than normal.