Kolkata: The city finally got a long-due rain relief on Thursday, with a thunderstorm in the evening. The rain, along with gusty wind, forced the mercury to plunge about three degrees within minutes — from around 30°C to 27°C. The Met office said there is more rain in the offing.In the absence of rain for more than a week, the city had been reeling under heat and humid conditions. However, the mercury, as well as the humidity, started declining slightly from Wednesday, when the city encountered brief rain and gusty wind.“There is cyclonic circulation over Jharkhand, a trough from Uttar Pradesh to Andhra Pradesh across Jharkhand and Odisha, strong moisture incursion from Bay of Bengal, along with a favourable wind pattern, which are causing the current thundershower activity. We can expect similar kind of thundershower activity on Friday as well, and it will continue to provide relief from the heat and humidity,” said meteorologist Sourish Bandyopadhyay of Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata.The rain, however, was not uniform across the city on Thursday. While pockets in northern parts got an intense spell with thunder and lightning, areas in the southern and central parts of the city got a lighter rain spell. The wind speed during the thunderstorm was between 50 kmph and 60 kmph, a Met official said.Both the maximum and minimum temperatures, at 34.4°C and 25.8°C, were below normal on Thursday The minimum temperature had remained above normal in the past 10 days at a stretch, touching the 30°C mark three days ago. Both night and day heat index are expected to dip slightly further by Friday.“The possibility of rain in the city gradually diminishes by Saturday, and we might enter into another dry spell,” Bandyopadhyay added.
