West Bengal doesn’t observe any severe Winters. Nowadays, the state capital Kolkata is observing minimum temperatures close to 13°C (which are close to normal). In the next three days as well, similar weather conditions are expected to prevail throughout the state. Following this, an Anti-Cyclone which is moving towards East might bring an increase in the temperatures.
Winter usually comes in with a fair share of precipitation over the Northern parts of the country that comes in the form of rain as well as snow. On the contrary, East India, including the state of West Bengal often gets very less rainfall at this time of the year. Normal rainfall for the month of January is 13.5 mm. And more often we fall short from this set target. Below table discusses some stats for rainfall over the years-
We see that only in the year 2012, West Bengal ran positive on rainfall and that too with a staggering ‘double the normal figure’. This was also the year when the city of Kolkata saw 94.4 mm (against the normal mark of 10 mm). Moreover, out of the total rainfall, most of the rains occurred on a single day (January 9) which recorded 71.2 mm. So, we can say that normally rains are a rare thing for West Bengal except for a few instances.
This time as well, no major rainfall occurred in the state as of now. A rainy spell is arriving for the country soon, however West Bengal is an exception to that. A ray of hope lies in the forecast of ‘very light rains’ towards the fag end of the month. But this short rainy spell is hardly enough for the rain deficiency to catch up.
Rainfall is usually rare even in the upcoming months of February and March. However, the graph picks pace towards the rainy months. The thick of Monsoon is usually rich in precipitation for the state. And, Kolkata which is the capital city is considered one of the rainiest pockets of the country (considering round-the-year total average rains for the city is 1836 mm).
Image Credits – India Today
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather
