Kolkata

KOLKATA: After a delay of more than a week the Met office have finally traced monsoon clouds that are likely to burst open over the Kolkata skies on Friday, 13 days after the Southwest monsoon hit the Kerala coast. “The prevailing weather conditions are favourable for the monsoon to finally hit Kolkata. Monsoon clouds are already over the Bay of Bengal area. Along with this, a low pressure area over the Northeast Bay has given us the hope for the rains to hit Kolkata and other parts of south Bengal by Friday,” said G K Das, director (weather) at Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.  

The Southwest monsoon reached the Kerala coast on June 8, seven days later than its scheduled date. Usually, the scheduled date for the monsoon to arrive in Kolkata is June 10, with an error margin of four days. In 2018, it hit Kolkata on June 11, 13 days later. In 2017, monsoon kept its date with the city on June 12, again 13 days after its onset in Kerala. If it hits the city on Friday, as predicted by the Met office, it will maintain its 13-day gap between its arrival in Kerala and Kolkata.  

Monsoon has already covered parts of Cooch Behar and Alipurduar. By Thursday, it had also touched some parts of neighbouring South and North 24 Pargans. By Friday, it is expected to cover more places, including Kolkata, north and south Bengal. “The low pressure area over the Northeast Bay is likely to come close to the coast by Thursday night and gradually move inside the land. Once it happens, it will bring in the monsoon rain. Meanwhile, there will be moderate rain in many places over the coastal area,” Das added.

But before the monsoon arrives, Kolkata continues to swelter with the mercury remaining as high as three degrees above the normal mark at 35. 9 degrees Celsius on Friday. If monsoon arrives on Friday, the temperature is likely to recede by about two degrees by Friday.  

“I hope the wait for monsoon does not get any longer. The heat is becoming unbearable at times,” said Sayani De, a schoolteacher.