60kmph evening squall dumps up to 96mm rain on city in 1 hr

Kolkata: A squall lashed Kolkata and the neighbouring districts of North and South 24 Parganas and Howrah with the wind speed gusting at 60 kmph early on Wednesday evening. The KMC drainage pumping stations recorded 96 mm of rainfall in Belgachhia, 70 mm in Ultadanga, 68 mm in Duttabagan and 63 mm in Maniktala. The figures in south were lower with 25 mm of rainfall in Ballygunge, 13 mm in Mominpore and Kalighat and 11 mm in Chetla. The Alipore Met department recorded 24.2 mm of rainfall. It was the second squall to strike the city in four days and was accompanied by a torrential downpour that lasted more than an hour and frequent lightning strikes. It left large parts of north Kolkata, which received heavier showers than the south, waterlogged till late in the evening.Wednesday's downpour left College Street, Thanthania, Amherst Street and Vivekananda Road under ankle-deep water. The strong winds and heavy rain also disrupted flight operations and forced at least four diversions. At the airport, winds gusting at 65 kmph were recorded. Between 4pm and 5pm, the rain was blinding and visibility reduced to 400m.The conditions forced SpiceJet flight SG 905 from Bagdogra to divert to Varanasi. On board the flight was Bengal cabinet minister Dipak Barman, who was travelling to the city to take charge of the departments that were allocated to him: school education; housing; micro, small & medium enterprises; and textiles.Three other flights were diverted: IndiGo flight 6E 910 from Delhi to Durgapur; IndiGo flight 6E 5312 from Itanagar to Bhubaneswar; and IndiGo flight 6E 7251 from Ranchi to Agartala.The thunderstorm, triggered by moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal and high surface temperatures that have been prevailing for a week now, lowered the mercury below 24°C and brought some relief at the end of a scorching day. Kolkata recorded a maximum temperature of 35.2°C and maximum relative humidity of 98%. The city was lashed by a squall with a wind speed of 60 kmph, gusting up to 64 kmph on Sunday evening, which resulted in a sharp temperature drop.Conditions are favourable for further advancement of southwest monsoon into the rest of southwest Bay of Bengal, more parts of west-central and northwest Bay and Bengal, some parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. Monsoon reached most parts of north Bengal on Tuesday."We expect the monsoon to reach south Bengal in three-four days. Till then, the temperature will hover around 35°C and humidity will stay high. The squall was caused by moisture incursion and a seasonal trough that extends from Punjab to Gangetic Bengal, across Haryana, UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. While heavy to very heavy rain is predicted in north Bengal districts of Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Darjeeling, South and North Dinajpur in three days, light to moderate rain and thunderstorms will continue across south Bengal.