The city’s long wait for rain ended on Monday.
It was not heavy but uniform, across the city and its fringes, something that Kolkata has had only once before in the past six months.
The Met office has not ruled out another spell on Tuesday.
The weather office recorded around 10mm of rain in Alipore and Dum Dum, almost all of it between 12.30pm and 2pm.
But the showers had a dramatic effect on people’s lives.
The maximum temperature was dragged down to 32.1 degrees Celsius, four notches below the usual daily maximum for late April.
Around 3pm on Monday, the temperature was around 30 degrees and the RealFeel 31.
Four days ago, on Thursday, the temperature around the same time was just under 41 degrees and the RealFeel around 45.
On Sunday, the air-conditioner at full blast seemed to be the only antidote to the searing heat. At many homes in Kolkata, a fan at half pelt felt good on Monday afternoon.
Between late October and end-March, Kolkata had been without rain. The blistering heat piled more agony on the recent wait.
Monday morning began sunny but the clouds started appearing around forenoon. By noon, the sky had turned grey. The white marbles of the Victoria Memorial stood in sharp contrast against the backdrop of a dark sky.
The conditions soon became windy, triggering dust waves at the Maidan. It started raining around 12.30pm. By 2pm, the entire city was wet.
The maximum wind speed recorded at Alipore was 54kmph, around 12.37pm.
Kolkatans, both in their homes and on the road, seemed to enjoy the showers. At Deshapriya Park, a couple of girls returning from school had their heads wrapped in polythene packets. They wanted to get wet but their mothers would have none of it.
Social media was flooded with pictures of a rain-soaked city.
“Rehmat comes in many forms. After days of 40/41/42°C, relief...,” said a Facebook post. Rehmat means mercy.
Children take cover under an umbrella amid rain near Lake Mall on Monday afternoon
bulk of the clouds that brought rain to Kolkata originated not over Jharkhand but East and West Midnapore, said a Met official.
“Usually, the clouds form over Jharkhand and move towards Kolkata. They come from a northwesterly direction. But today, the clouds that caused rain in Kolkata came from a southwesterly direction, from East and West Midnapore. The clouds came via North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah,” said G.K. Das, director, India Meteorological Department, Kolkata.
That is the reason the clouds reached reasonably quickly, he added.
“Clouds from the Jharkhand border come via Bankura and adjoining districts. They take longer to reach Kolkata, where it usually causes rain in the evening or night. Such clouds are usually taller and more powerful,” he said.
A cyclonic circulation over the Jharkhand-Bengal border is drawing a lot of moisture from the Bay, he said.
“A set of clouds formed near the system went towards Nadia and Murshidabad on Monday. The same thing had happened yesterday, robbing Kolkata of rain. But today, another set of clouds managed to reach Kolkata,” said Das.
The temperature is likely to start rising from Wednesday again. “But the conditions are good for thunderstorm activities. Even if Kolkata is dry and the districts get rain, the temperature in Kolkata is unlikely to shoot up to the heat-wave level (40 degrees Celsius) at least in what remains of this month,” said a Met official.