More rain to take shape over Gangetic Bengal by middle of the week, predicts Met
Telegraph | 23 June 2025
The city woke up to a cloudy sky and a persistent drizzle on Sunday.
It looked like the day was going to get rainier. But eventually, the rain was negligible. The cloud cover was consistent, barring a brief spell of sun late in the afternoon.
More rain is in store as a fresh system is likely to take shape over Gangetic Bengal by the middle of this week, the Met office said.
On Sunday, the Met office recorded a maximum temperature of 30.2 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal. The temperature was dragged down — Saturday saw a maximum of 31.6 degrees — by the overcast conditions.
The Met office recorded less than 5mm of rain in Alipore on Sunday.
A Met official dubbed the rain “typical monsoon rain”.
“An east-west trough runs from south Pakistan to central parts of Bangladesh. Gangetic Bengal is under its path. It is over Murshidabad and adjoining areas. The trough is feeding moisture into the atmosphere. It is likely to descend in the coming days, closer to south Bengal. It will cause more rain in Calcutta and other areas,” said the Met official in Alipore.
The southwest monsoon is yet to cover the entire country. When it does, the east-west trough will be called the monsoon trough.
“Southwest monsoon has further advanced over most parts of Himachal Pradesh, entire Ladakh and Kashmir, most parts of Jammu and some parts of Punjab. Conditions are favourable for further advance of Southwest monsoon over remaining parts of North Arabian Sea, some more parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, some parts of Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, remaining parts of West Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu during next two days,” said a Met report on Sunday.
The monsoon trough is an imaginary line connecting various low-pressure points from west to east.
The monsoon trough keeps oscillating. When it is over the foothills of the Himalayas, north Bengal and the Northeast get rain. When it descends to the northern Bay of Bengal because of a low-pressure system, coastal Bengal receives rain. If the trough descends further, peninsular India gets drenched.
The volume of rainfall is likely to increase by the middle of this week.
“An upper air cyclonic circulation is likely to form over Gangetic West Bengal and neighbourhood around June 25,” said the Met official in Alipore.
Once it takes shape, the spread and intensity of rainfall in south Bengal will go up. If the trough is in a conducive position, then several places in south Bengal may end up getting heavy rain,” he added.