Rains on Wednesday afternoon gave respite to the people in Kolkata grappling with sweltering heat and power trips over past several days.
Weathermen at the Alipore Meteorological office said the rains were result of the scorching heat and added that the progress of monsoons in the city will restart by the weekend.
On Tuesday, the maximum temperature was around 39.6 degrees Celsius about six degrees above normal. Over the past few days, power cuts in several areas in the city late in the evening and even in the wee hours of morning have left the residents furious. The CESC authorities described the power cuts as localised faults and attributed the situation to high usage of air-conditioning till the wee hours of morning due to ongoing football World Cup.
“Usually the power consumption drops after 12 in the night. But with everyone being glued to television and ACs working there have been localised faults in different areas of the city,” a senior CESC official told The Hindu . The CESC officials ruled out any ‘load shedding’.
On the weather front, the relative humidity recorded in the last 24 hours was 64% in the morning and 73% in the evening.
With the discomfort continuing, the State government has decided to extended the summer vacations till June 30.
