Kolkata: 3 squalls over Thursday and Friday bring May's highest 24-hr rainfall

KOLKATA: Two nor'wester squalls passing over Alipore and Dum Dum respectively on Friday, after the one on Thursday, brought 37.9mm and 22.5mm rain to the city, making the pre-weekend spell the highest recorded rainfall this month.
Thursday's squall of 63kmph for three minutes from 7.20pm, followed by nine hours of continuous precipitation, reduced the maximum temperature by almost three notches from 36.2°C to 33.4°C. While Friday was mostly sunny till the afternoon, showers from around 6pm brought two squalls - 55kmph at Alipore lasting three minutes and 46kmph at Dum Dum lasting a minute - and brought the temperature down further.
The squalls and enhanced rain can be attributed to a cyclonic circulation passing over Jharkhand. RMC director G K Das said the chance of enhanced thunderstorm activity in Kolkata may reduce from Saturday, but most districts in Bengal will get thunderstorms until May end.
In the run-up to monsoon, typically around June 10, there may be thunderstorm activity every few days, Das said. Saturday is likely to remain partly cloudy for most of the day with reduced chances of thundershowers compared to Thursday and Friday.
On Friday, four incoming flights - one from Dubai, a Haj flight from Medina, one from Delhi and another from Guwahati - had to be diverted due to bad weather between 6.47pm and 7.14pm, and a flight from Raipur hovered over Kolkata around 6.18pm before landing at 6.31pm when the weather improved.