No rain for 57 days, Kolkata witnesses millennium’s longest dry spell – Times of India

Kolkata News
KOLKATA: With no rain for 57 days, the city is under the grip of the longest dry spell of this millennium. Expect no immediate respite from the scorcher as the Met office has spied no rain for now. The heat wave like conditions will continue to prevail in Kolkata.
“There is a chance of improvement after April 29 as we expect some favourable weather conditions that could trigger thunderstorm activities by around May 2. Before that the city will continue to reel under the heatwave-like condition,” said Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, deputy director general of meteorology at Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) Kolkata.

From 39.5 degrees Celsius on Monday, the maximum temperature climbed down to 37 degrees on Tuesday. But in the absence of rain, the city will continue to feel the intense heat, said Met officials.
“This is the longest dry spell the city has come across since 2000. Already, there is a deficiency of 95% rain in south Bengal. The maximum temperature dropped in Kolkata due to weak westerly wind in lower level and increase in moisture in coastal areas,” said GK Das, director (weather) at RMC.
According to data with the Met office, the longest dry spell in summer before 2022 was in 2006 when the city did not get a drop of rain for 43 days between March and April. The weather scientists said that extreme activities are on the rise and global warning could be one of the causes.
“For example, in March itself there were two unseasonal deep depressions over the Bay of Bengal and now the absence of norwester/thunderstorm activities for such a long period. These are not very normal weather conditions,” added Bandyopadhyay.
According to weather scientists, under normal conditions around this time there should have been formation of anti-cyclonic circulations over the Bay of Bengal regularly and also cyclonic circulation/trough formation over Chhotanagpur region. But such weather systems are absent so far making the dry spell longer.
Kolkata is now going through dry and heat spell in the absence of moisture in the air. This has pushed up the discomfort index which has remained above 60 for more than a week now.
Eleven places in nine districts were under heatwave on Tuesday. The highest maximum temperature across the state was 43.5 degrees Celsius — at Panagarh.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/no-rain-for-57-days-kol-witnesses-millenniums-longest-dry-spell/articleshow/91111025.cms