Kolkata and its neighbourhood areas experienced a thunderstorm on Monday evening but the weatherman said the Southwest monsoon is yet to set foot in south Bengal districts. The monsoon has, however, touched its base in most parts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, the met office said in a statement.
Head of the Eastern region of the Indian Meteorological Department Sanjib Bandyopadhyay told PTI that gusty wind accompanied by light to moderate rainfall lashed parts of Kolkata, and parts of south Bengal districts in afternoon-evening hours bringing down the mercury level but it was not pre-monsoon shower.
"The monsoon is still some days away to arrive in the city and south Bengal districts. What happened today can be described as the development of a local system caused by the partial entry of south-westerly monsoon winds while the north-westerly winds are in air circulation already. This has resulted in the presence of moisture in the air already," he added.
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The hot and humid conditions in south Bengal will continue for the next few days till the advent of monsoon, he explained. A met office bulletin said a squall having a speed of 40-50 km/hour lashed several districts including Howrah, Hooghly, Purba Bardhaman, Bankura, Purulia, Paschim Medinipur during Monday afternoon-evening.
The city recorded 36.2 degrees Celsius maximum temperature, 1.7 degrees Celsius higher than normal, and 27.7 degree Celsius as minimum temperature during the day while the maximum relative humidity was recorded at 86 per cent making the discomfort level high.
The met office bulletin said "The Southwest monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of Karnataka, some more parts of Konkan, remaining parts of Tamil Nadu, some more parts of Andhra Pradesh, some more parts of northwest Bay of Bengal today, most parts of Sub-HImalayan West Bengal and Sikkim and some parts of Bihar on the June 12."
