The IMD has forecast the possibility of heavy rain across the state starting on Sunday, Maha Saptami, citing intensification of the cyclonic circulation that emerged in the northeast and adjoining east central Bay of Bengal on Saturday.

If the prediction comes true, residents across south and north Bengal are set to experience dull festive days marred with “scattered to relatively widespread” rain with isolated heavy downpour (64.5 mm to 115.5 mm) from Sunday to Thursday.

The anticipated bad weather prompted pandal-hoppers to take to the streets from Saturday or even earlier. People were seen crowding pandals in several areas of south and north Bengal. Long queues were seen in the early hours of Saturday afternoon at several pandals.

Suparna Das, a homemaker in Contai, said, “We usually begin pandal visits from Maha Saptami. But owing to the threat of bad weather, we began pandal-hopping on Friday night, a little after bodhon rituals on Panchami.”

As a result of the intensified “low pressure area”, moderate rainfall with thunderstorms is likely to occur in South Bengal districts from Sunday, with heavy rainfall slated for certain areas in the coastal districts of South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore and West Midnapore.

On Monday (Maha Ashtami), moderate rainfall is likely to occur in several districts in south Bengal, with heavy rainfall slated for several parts of East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia district, the IMD Calcutta office has stated.

The IMD has issued a yellow alert for people in the Gangetic region of Bengal up to Tuesday (Maha Navami) and for the sub-Himalayan region on Tuesday. Moderate to heavy rainfall in most areas of south Bengal is also likely to continue along coastal districts including South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore as well as parts of Jhargram and West Midnapore on Wednesday (Dashami) and Thursday (Ekadashi), the weather office has predicted.

In north Bengal, light to moderate rainfall is likely in most districts, including Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur and Malda from Sunday to Thursday owing to the low pressure.

Sanjib Bandopadhyay, the IMD’s Calcutta Region’s director, said, “There is no change so far in the weather situation. As anticipated, most areas of south Bengal are likely to experience inclement weather from Sunday (October 2), owing to moderate to heavy rainfall, particularly in the coastal districts."

The state government has alerted the district-level disaster management wings to be ready for “disastrous situations”.

“We have alerted our personnel to be present at the designated locations during the threat period. We are ready to face any situation,” said an official of the South 24-Parganas district’s disaster management wing. In East Midnapore, district disaster management officer Mrityunjoy Halder told The Telegraph: “We have so far not issued any alert for the tourists to curb their access to the sea but are ready to combat any situation.”

East Midnapore district administration has issued alerts for officials of the local administration in spots such as Mandarmani, Tajpur, Sankarpur, Digha, Khejuri, and Nandigram, asking them to be “watchful” in the wake of anticipated heavy rainfall.