An intense bout of rain, the second in three days, caught Kolkatans off guard on Saturday afternoon.
The showers, which left multiple roads flooded and traffic stalled, were accompanied by frightening streaks of lightning and rumblings of thunder that set car alarms off.
But the impact on traffic was not as much because it was a Saturday.
A similar spell had struck the city on Thursday. But Saturday’s rain was more uniform.
Based on data from the pumping stations of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, parts of Dum Dum and Paikpara received around 75mm of rain between noon and 2pm.
Dutta Bagan near Belgachhia received 70mm in the same period. Topsia got around 70mm and Jodhpur Park 59mm. Ballygunge received 53mm and Behala around 35mm. On Thursday, as pockets of south Kolkata were submerged, all that northern parts of the city got was light rain.
In Met parlance, 60mm of rain in 24 hours qualifies as heavy.
A Met official said the city is likely to remain rainy till Monday.
The eastern slope of Bijon Setu, BB Chatterjee Road in Kasba, the intersection of Sarat Bose Road and Southern Avenue were some of the roads that were waterlogged.
A nationalised bank in Deshapriya Park had ankle-deep water inside in the afternoon.
Officials of the drainage department of the civic body attributed the waterlogging to a familiar foe — the coincidence of heavy rain and high tide.
“The sluice gates of the Hooghly were shut from 1pm to 5pm,” said an official.
Kolkata’s drainage infrastructure is only capable of draining out up to 6mm of rain in an hour. The showers were almost 10 times the capacity and the high tide only made things worse.
The Met office linked the intensity of the showers to the extremely sultry conditions the day before. The intense rain on Thursday cooled the city but only temporarily.
Friday was consistently hot and humid. The maximum temperature was around 34 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal. But the humidity was over 60 per cent even during the driest part of the day. As a result, the discomfort index was very high throughout the day. Even when the Celsius read 34 degrees, it felt like 42 degrees as Kolkatans sweated throughout the day.
“The high humidity and enough heating played the catalyst. As a result, thunderclouds were in the making. The moisture kept coming from the Bay and feeding the clouds,” said G.K. Das, director, India Meteorological Department, Kolkata.
A cyclonic circulation is in the works on the north Bay of Bengal. It is expected to take shape by Sunday and intensify into a cyclonic circulation by Tuesday.
“A system on the north Bay of Bengal is most favourable for rain in Kolkata. But the system is expected to keep moving. By the time the low pressure takes shape, it is expected to be closer to the Odisha coast,” said Das.
But the system is expected to trigger widespread rain in the city over the next 48 hours, said Das.
The main rainfall the system is expected to trigger in Kolkata is likely to be before it turns into a low-pressure area, he added.
