Kolkata: A series of nor’westers through Wednesday night gave the city its second wettest April day in around 15 years. While the Met office did not rule out a few more spells of thundershower, albeit of less intensity, in the next few days, a special IMD bulletin issued an orange alert for thunderstorm in the city and a few neighbouring districts on Monday, the counting day for Assembly elections.“We expect a few more spells of thunderstorm in the next few days, but with lower intensity. On Monday, however, there could be intense thunderstorm activities in Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, East and West Burdwan, Bankura and West Midnapore,” said H R Biswas, head of the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Kolkata. The IMD’s orange thunderstorm alert for North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah and West Midnapore begins from Sunday when a few places are likely to face lightning and gusty wind.An intense thunderstorm that started pounding on Wednesday night went on till well past midnight. The Alipore Met office recorded 52.6 mm of rain between Wednesday and Thursday morning, most of it happened during the first two hours, leaving various pockets of the city under water. This is the second-highest single-day rain in the city for April since 2011, after 63.7 mm of rain on April 6, 2012. In 2025 it was only 23 mm while in 2024 and 2023 it was 0.5 mm and 34.8 mm, respectively. This April the city has got a monthly total rain of 99.1 mm, way above the normal monthly rain count. This is the third-highest April rain since 2011. In April 2025 it was 47.9 mm. “April’s rain count for Kolkata is about 74% above the normal mark. Apart from Malda and Murshidabad, all districts of Bengal have got either surplus or normal rain count this month due to frequent thunderstorm spells,” said the RMC Kolkata head. The bumper 24-hour rain also dragged the maximumdown to 28.2° on Thursday, which was 7.4 notches below normal, the lowest day temperature in more than a month. On Wednesday it was 32.2°. The minimum also plummeted 20.4°, which was again a whopping 5.8° below normal. This again was the lowest in about three weeks. Due to the frequent thundershowers, the highest maximum this month, which was 36.8° on April 23, remains the lowest for April in the past one-and-a-half decade.“Next few days the temperature will be on the lower side to make the heat tolerable,” added Biswas.
