Calcutta: A cloudy sky with multiple spells of rain in between kept Kolkata under a spell of humidity on Monday. The Met Office has forecast some heavier rain in the city until the first half of Tuesday before the frequency and intensity of rain decreases until the following day. The Alipore Meteorological Office is closely monitoring a developing weather system over the Bay that could trigger fresh rain activity again.Met officials said the current rainy condition is due to monsoon trough over the state along with a cyclonic circulation over the Bay. Alipore recorded a rainfall amount of around 19 mm till Monday night. Apart from Kolkata, several districts of South Bengal received light to moderate rains, while North Bengal is being lashed by heavy rains.“We can expect a few more spells of rain, including some heavy ones until Tuesday morning. This is due to the influence of monsoon trough as well as higher air circulation over the Bay of Bengal. Even if it rains on Wednesday, the amount is likely to be less significant. But there is a possibility of resumption of rain activities from Thursday,” Kolkata Regional Meteorological Center director HR Biswas said.The Meteorological Office expects the formation of a cyclonic circulation over the Bay of Bengal by Thursday with the possibility of this system further intensifying into a low pressure area. In that case, this will be the second area of low pressure over the Bay since the onset of the southwest monsoon this year. Two weeks ago a low pressure area had formed which then intensified into a depression. While the system affected neighboring Odisha the most, Kolkata and parts of south Bengal also became mild to moderate.“We will wait for the weather system to form. The impact of this system on our region will depend on factors including the shape of the system, its intensification, its track and how close it approaches our region. But generally we can expect fresh rains between Thursday and Friday,” Biswas added.With some amount of rain every day, the city’s mercury continued to be below normal for nine consecutive days. The maximum temperature was 31.4°C, 1.4 degrees below normal. The city has already recorded 128 mm of rain this July after surplus rainfall in June with an accumulated rainfall amount of 365 mm against the normal 283 mm for the month. From June to July so far, Kolkata has received 493 mm of rain against a normal average of 443, leading to a slight excess of rain this monsoon.
