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regular-article-logo Thursday, 19 September 2024

City spends overcast Sunday as a deep depression over south Bengal moves westward

Weather set to improve from today, predict Met officials

Debraj Mitra Calcutta Published 16.09.24, 10:02 AM
Pedestrians walk amid rain on Park Street on Sunday afternoon

Pedestrians walk amid rain on Park Street on Sunday afternoon Picture by Gautam Bose 

The city spent an overcast Sunday as a deep depression over south Bengal slowly moved westward.

Almost the entire day was cloudy and the sun hardly made an appearance. Showers were reported from across the city. But they were far from heavy.

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The weather is set to improve from Monday, said Met officials.

The official forecast is for “generally cloudy sky, with a possibility of light to moderate rain”.

“The weather is not going to be as gloomy as it was on Sunday,” said a Met official.

According to the Met forecast, heavy rainfall is likely in Jhargram and Purulia on Monday.

Friday and Saturday together have seen over 100mm of rain in Calcutta. Swathes of south Bengal were pounded by far heavier rain and strong gusts of wind that have damaged homes.

In Met parlance, more than 60mm of rain in 24 hours is considered heavy.

In Calcutta, Sunday was not as rainy but the sky remained cloudy throughout the day. Light showers were reported from across the city.

The overcast conditions kept the Celsius under check. The maximum temperature was 26.2 degrees, almost seven notches below normal.

On Saturday, too, the showers and the consistent cloud cover had dragged the maximum temperature down to around 26.5 degrees Celsius.

“The deep depression over Gangetic West Bengal moved west-northwestward with a speed of 8kmph during past six hours and lay centred at 11.30am on Sunday over the same region, about 90km west-northwest of Kolkata, 90km south-southeast of Bankura, 140km east of Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) and 230km east-southeast of Ranchi (Jharkhand),” said a Met bulletin issued on Sunday afternoon.

The system had entered Bengal through North 24-Parganas and was around 20km from Calcutta on Saturday afternoon.

The Sunday bulletin added: “It is likely to move slowly, nearly westwards across Gangetic West Bengal and maintain its intensity of deep depression till Sunday. Thereafter, it is likely to weaken gradually into a depression and move nearly westwards across Jharkhand and North Chhattisgarh during subsequent 48 hours (till Tuesday).”

The widespread protests against the RG Kar brutality have already dented pre-Puja business in the shopping hubs of Calcutta. The inclement weather has only made things worse. With a drop in the intensity of the showers on Sunday, places like Gariahat, Hatibagan and New Market saw a marginal improvement in footfall. As did South City, Quest and Acropolis malls.

Between 8.30am on Saturday and 8.30am on Sunday, several places in south Bengal received more than 150mm of rain.

Jhargram, East Midnapore, Murshidabad, Bankura and West Burdwan were among the districts that bore the brunt of the deep depression.

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