The sun is likely to shine bright this weekend, the Met office has said.
This weekend is the second last before Durga Puja. The showers scuttled shopping plans the last weekend. People will try to make up on this one.
A low-pressure area has triggered close to 170mm of rain in Alipore over the past five days. But some other parts of the city were much wetter.
Ballygunge, for example, received over 100mm of rain in just a few hours between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
In Met parlance, 60mm of rain in 24 hours qualifies as heavy.
The intensity of the rain has been much more in north Bengal and Sikkim, where flash floods have swept away homes and people and damaged roads.
The low-pressure system was over Gangetic Bengal on Thursday. But it was poised to move towards neighbouring Bangladesh in a day or two, said Met officials.
Thursday saw very little rain in Kolkata. The Met office in Alipore, whose readings serve as the official figure of Kolkata, recorded less than 5mm over 24 hours since 8.30pm on Thursday.
"The low-pressure area now lies over western parts of Gangetic West Bengal and neighbourhood," said a Met bulletin.
"The system is likely to move towards Bangladesh via Malda. Some rain is not ruled out in Kolkata on Friday. But the weather will be better. The sun should come out over the weekend," said G.K. Das, director, India Meteorological Department, Kolkata.
Heavy rain is likely at one or two places in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts in north Bengal on Friday. But there is no such warning for south Bengal.
In Kolkata, the sky was cloudy for large parts on Thursday. The maximum temperature was 30 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal.
Because of the moisture that the system leaves in its wake, some rain is not ruled out over the next few days. But the showers will not be threatening, said Met officials. The day temperature is also likely to stay below normal for at least a day or two.
How the weather stays during the Puja should be clear by next week, said a Met official.
The monsoon usually retreats from Kolkata between October 10 and 12.
A Met official said there is a possibility that the retreat would stick to its schedule.
"Let the low-pressure system move away first. We will then wait for a few days and see what the parameters are," he said.
Weather scientists generally treat three to four rain-free days as a prerequisite to announcing the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon.
A dip in the moisture content in the air is another marker of the end of the monsoon. The third marker is a reversal in the flow of winds.
The end of the monsoon is marked by the arrival of winds from north India. The winds from the direction of the Bay of Bengal gradually stop flowing into the city.
