Warm days with light rain ahead

Brace for warmer days and nights in the next 48 hours with the temperature and humidity set to rise because of a western disturbance in eastern India.

“An active western disturbance is headed for eastern India, which will result in a cloud cover over Kolkata and its neighbourhood over the next 48 hours,”

said Gokul Chandra Debnath, the director of the Regional Meteorological Centre at Alipore.

“The cloud cover will not only push up the humidity but also the temperature during the latter half of the day,” Debnath said.

The cloud cover might also result in light rain on Wednesday in some areas, but that won’t impact the temperature.

“The rain might provide temporary relief but it won’t be enough to bring down the mercury,” the weatherman added.

The humidity, which dipped to a minimum of 40 per cent on Monday, was very low over the past 10 days or so — a reason why Kolkatans were not feeling uncomfortable despite temperatures not being too low.

The minimum temperature, which was 16.1 degrees Celsius (normal) on Monday, is expected to touch 17 degrees on a cloudy Tuesday.

The minimum has consistently hovered around the 14-degree mark so far this month

“Though winter is expected to stay its full course, the minimum temperature is likely to rise steadily from now. We are in that phase of transition which would slowly usher in summer,” Debnath said.

But don’t stow away all your woollens yet. Though it’s hardly two weeks before winter officially bids adieu to the city, weathermen do not rule out a final dip in temperatures.

“There might well be another spell, however brief, of relatively cooler weather. But the mercury won’t dip beyond a couple of degrees,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in New Delhi.


The Telegraph Metro