Kolkata:
North Kolkata witnessed a mild hailstorm on Wednesday, waking up residents with
a medley of thunderclaps, lightning and rain, signaling the arrival of
pre-monsoon weather transition.
Although
the northern part of the city witnessed hail, the other part of the city slept
soundly to a clear sky. The rain and hail were accompanied by gusty winds that
peaked at 52kmph between 4.09 and 4.10am.The downpour lasted barely 10 minutes,
but its intensity was pretty high.
The
weather office theorized that the tall dark thundercloud that shouldered the
storm had formed overnight because of a trough and a high-pressure belt that
sucked moisture inland from the Bay of Bengal. The storm train stopped in its
tracks over north Kolkata apparently because of a sharp fluctuation in
temperature.
Kolkata usually does not receive any hailstorm in
the winter months and such events generally occur in the month of April. Such
weather events are no surprise for Peninsular India but definitely for Kolkata.
Pre-monsoon showers increase from March to April and finally May witnesses 137
mm of rain on an average in the city.
Typical characteristics of pre-monsoon rain
involve intense and sharp showers which quickly bring down the temperature.
G.C.
Debnath, the deputy director-general of the India Meteorological Department in Kolkata
said: "Often, when a thundercloud is suddenly exposed to a drop in
temperature, its movement stops and it tends to drain itself out in and around
the area where its progress ends.”
The
weather charts showed that a trough of low pressure stretched from north Bengal
to east Madhya Pradesh and a high-pressure belt on the Orissa coast, drawing
moisture from the sea onto the land.
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