As Kolkata Sweats, Official Monsoon Arrival Date Remains Uncertain Despite Expected Kerala Onset
Kolkata is currently experiencing intense summer conditions, with maximum temperatures hovering between 36°C and 38°C. While the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced that the southwest monsoon is expected to make landfall over Kerala around June 4, the exact timeline for its arrival in Kolkata remains highly uncertain. H.R. Biswas, head of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore, clarified that meteorologists cannot yet definitively predict when the monsoon will officially reach the city. He emphasized that although daily thunderstorm activities are forecast for Kolkata and other parts of Bengal, these systems are strictly pre-monsoon developments and do not mark the official start of the rainy season.
The uncertainty comes amid a global warning from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) regarding a potential “super” El Niño in 2026, which could severely drive up global baseline temperatures and trigger extreme weather worldwide. However, Biswas reassured residents that El Niño formations and Kolkata’s immediate summer patterns are two distinct, unrelated phenomena. Furthermore, there is no active heatwave warning for the city, as official heatwave criteria require temperatures to cross 40°C or surge 5°C above seasonal norms. In the short term, Kolkata is bracing for a wet weekend spell, with thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds of 40 to 50 kmph forecast for Friday and Sunday. Similar unsettled weather is expected across neighboring south Bengal districts, including Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24 Parganas, and coastal areas, before the rainfall begins to turn more scattered early next week.
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