Waiting for the monsoon has become akin to waiting for Godot for the people of south Bengal. While monsoon has hit north Bengal, south Bengal is still reeling under hot and humid weather. The mercury has crossed 39°C between June 7 and 9 with the Real-Feel temperature around 50°C in Kolkata.
The highest temperature recorded in West Bengal on Sunday was at Panagarh. The industrial town and Indian Air Force base touched 44°C, a notch less than the temperature recorded during the April heatwave. The weather office has declared the weather condition in south Bengal as ‘heatwave’ and ‘severe heatwave’ on Monday late afternoon.
In Kolkata, the sky remained partly cloudy over the last two days but the sultry weather made it uncomfortable as maximum relative humidity hovered between 85 and 90 per cent.
Other places like Durgapur, Kalaikunda, Purulia and Bankura clocked in 42°C, while Sriniketan, Jhargram and Bardhaman have all crossed the 40-degree mark.
Although north Bengal has been experiencing monsoon, it has not made much progress. The temperature hasn’t been normal in Malda, as it recorded 37°C on June 9, which is about 1.9°C above normal. Even in Darjeeling, the temperature is 2.2°C above normal at 22°C.
File photograph
In a bulletin released on Monday, Sourish Bandyopadhyay, scientist, IMD said, “An east-west trough from northwest Bihar to Nagaland across sub-Himalayan West Bengal and south Assam lies at 0.9 km above mean sea level. A cyclonic circulation lies over east Bihar at 0.9 km above mean sea level has merged with the above trough. Due to the trough, heavy to very heavy rainfall (7-20cm) activity is likely over the northern districts of north Bengal.”
Bandyopadhyay has also blamed the trough for the ongoing heatwave in the southern parts of Bengal.
Chirosree Roy from Kolkata, who is currently in Darjeeling on holiday, has been experiencing warm weather in the hills, too. “It is not at all cold here. Sometimes, it rains in the early morning hours but as the day sets in, it gets hot. The nights are pleasant.”
India Meteorological Department (IMD) on June 8 did not see the monsoon arriving in south Bengal before June 10. On Monday, the weather office issued a prediction for the next seven days wherein the weather is likely to be dry till June 12 and from June 13, there are chances of light to moderate rain for Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24-Parganas, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, Bardhaman, Medinipur, Birbhum, Murshidabad and Nadia.
West Bengal enjoyed some relief from heat in the end of May as cyclonic circulations lingered over the Bay of Bengal. Cyclone Remal brought rainfall, dragging down the mercury. The temperatures were as low as 33°C between May 28 and June 3 in Kolkata. The rainfall recorded was around 200mm during the cyclonic weather adding to the recorded 435.3mm of rain, which is 26 per cent of the city’s annual average rainfall this year.