The rainiest month in the city has started on a rainy note.

Between 5.30pm on July 1 and 5.30pm on July 2, the Met office recorded around 32mm of rain in Alipore, which serves as the official recordkeeper for Calcutta.

While drizzles were reported from several areas on Monday night, the intensity and spread of the rain increased from Tuesday morning. Between 8.30am and 5.30pm, Alipore got around 27mm of rain.

The overcast conditions along with more rain are likely to prevail over the next couple of days, according to the Met forecast.

July’s usual rainfall quota in Calcutta is just under 400mm, said an official of the Met department, which is more than any other month.

The showers that the city, and almost the entire state, is getting now are typical monsoon showers, said a Met official.

The sky was consistently cloudy on Tuesday and the rain came in multiple spells. It was not heavy and was not accompanied by gusts of wind and streaks of lightning that are typical of thunderstorms. Instead, the showers were persistent and nagging.

The rain was also uniform. Around 1pm on Tuesday, umbrellas and raincoats were out in Esplanade, Gariahat, Behala and Shyambazar.

Despite a late surge, June ended with a near-50 per cent rain deficit in Calcutta, said a Met official.

A Met bulletin on Tuesday said the southwest monsoon had covered the entire country.

“The southwest monsoon has further advanced into the remaining parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab today. Thus, it has covered the entire country on July 2 against the normal date of July 8,” the bulletin said.

“A cyclonic circulation lies over east Bihar and neighbourhood.... Yesterday’s trough from north Punjab to Mizoram now runs from northwest Bihar to south Assam across sub-Himalayan West Bengal.... The cyclonic circulation over sub-Himalayan West Bengal and neighbourhood now lies over north Bangladesh and neighbourhood.... The cyclonic circulation over east Jharkhand and neighbourhood now lies over sub-Himalayan West Bengal and neighbourhood,” the bulletin added.

Considering the meteorological conditions, the Met office has predicted “heavy to very heavy” rain in north Bengal and “heavy rain” in some parts of south Bengal over the next couple of days.

In north Bengal, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Coochbehar, Malda and North and South Dinajpur are likely to get heavy rain.

In south Bengal, North- and South-24 Parganas, Nadia, Birbhum and Murshidabad are likely to get heavy rain.