Kol breathes easy as max, min temp, humidity drop ahead of wet spell

Kolkata: Ahead of the thunderstorm forecast for Kolkata, the mercury as well as the humidity started descending from Wednesday. While Kolkata waits for its share of rain, areas like Lake Town and Salt Lake got a spell in the evening, the Met officials said even as some parts of the city may get a light rain spell through Wednesday night, the city's rendezvous with an impactful thunderstorm is likely to be on Thursday."The possibility for Kolkata encountering a thunderstorm is about 80% on Thursday, during which the wind speed could be around 50 to 60 kmph. The mercury will go down further," said meteorologist HR Biswas, head at IMD's RMC Kolkata.Alipore recorded a maximum temperature of 34.1°C, one notch below normal. This was the lowest day temperature in the past two weeks. Despite it being normal, the real feel in the peak of the afternoon went up as high as 45°C. The Met officials said the difference between the actual temperature and the real feel was due to high humid content. The real feel, however, shot up above 50°C a week ago. The maximum relative humidity remained above 90% even three days ago. It is now 86% for three days straight.The minimum temperature, which soared to 30°C on Monday, dipped to 28.2°C, a high of one notch above normal. Despite the hot and humid condition in the past two weeks, Met officials said the heat this May is one of the most tolerable for the month in the recent past. In fact, the highest maximum temperature of 36.6°C this month, recorded on May 14, is the lowest for May in at least a decade and a half.In 2025, May it almost touched 40°C, while in 2024, May the city experienced heat wave-like condition with the mercury shooting past 40 degrees when Kolkata recorded 42°C in the beginning of the month. While impactful thundershowers are key to provide relief from heat around this time of the year, the city has been without one in the past week. In the first 9 days of the month, Kolkata recorded rain on seven days. But there have been only two rainy days in the past 18 days.According to an IMD bulletin, there is an upper air cyclonic circulation, three different trough lines, favourable wind pattern and moisture injected by the Bay of Bengal are some of the factors that will ensure Kolkata its rain relief. "The Thursday thunderstorm will be widespread. In some districts, the wind speed can go up to 80 kmph," said Biswas. Intense thundershowers started lashing some districts, including Bankura, Purulia and Jhargram from Wednesday.