Kolkata experienced a severe squall on Wednesday evening, with wind speeds gusting up to 60 kmph, affecting the city and neighboring districts of North and South 24 Parganas and Howrah. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) drainage pumping stations recorded significant rainfall: 96 mm in Belgachhia, 70 mm in Ultadanga, 68 mm in Duttabagan, and 63 mm in Maniktala. In contrast, southern parts of the city saw lower precipitation, with 25 mm in Ballygunge, 13 mm in Mominpore and Kalighat, and 11 mm in Chetla. The Alipore Meteorological department recorded 24.2 mm of rainfall.
This was the second squall to hit Kolkata in four days, accompanied by a torrential downpour lasting over an hour and frequent lightning strikes. North Kolkata, which received heavier showers, experienced waterlogging that persisted until late evening. Streets such as College Street, Thanthania, Amherst Street, and Vivekananda Road were submerged under ankle-deep water.
The severe weather disrupted flight operations at Kolkata airport, where wind speeds gusted up to 65 kmph. Between 4 pm and 5 pm, heavy rain reduced visibility to 400 meters, forcing the diversion of at least four flights. SpiceJet flight SG 905 from Bagdogra was diverted to Varanasi, carrying Bengal cabinet minister Dipak Barman, who was en route to take charge of the school education, housing, micro, small & medium enterprises, and textiles departments. Other diversions included IndiGo flight 6E 910 from Delhi to Durgapur, IndiGo flight 6E 5312 from Itanagar to Bhubaneswar, and IndiGo flight 6E 7251 from Ranchi to Agartala.
The thunderstorm was triggered by moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal and high surface temperatures prevailing for the past week. It brought down the mercury below 24 degrees Celsius, providing relief after a scorching day. Kolkata recorded a maximum temperature of 35.2 degrees Celsius and maximum relative humidity of 98 percent. A similar squall on Sunday evening had wind speeds of 60 kmph, gusting up to 64 kmph, leading to a sharp temperature drop.
Weather officials noted that conditions are favorable for the further advancement of the southwest monsoon into the rest of the southwest Bay of Bengal, more parts of west-central and northwest Bay and Bengal, and some parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha. The monsoon reached most parts of north Bengal on Tuesday. A Met department official stated, 'We expect the monsoon to reach south Bengal in three to four days. Till then, the temperature will hover around 35 degrees Celsius and humidity will stay high. The squall was caused by moisture incursion and a seasonal trough extending from Punjab to Gangetic Bengal, across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. While heavy to very heavy rain is predicted in north Bengal districts such as Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Darjeeling, South and North Dinajpur in the next three days, light to moderate rain and thunderstorms will continue across south Bengal.'
