Monsoon arrives in north Bengal, Met spies relief for Kolkata in 4-5 days

KOLKATA: Southwest monsoon reached most parts of north Bengal on Tuesday. The Met office has predicted that the rains could reach the rest of Bengal in four-five days. A Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) bulletin said monsoon has reached entire Kalimpong, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar, and most parts of Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling.

Conditions are favourable for further advancement of southwest monsoon into the remaining parts of southwest Bay of Bengal, westcentral and northwest Bay of Bengal, Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha, said the bulletin.

“We expect monsoon to reach south Bengal by the end of this week. The rest of Bengal, too, should be covered by then,” a weatherman said.

The southwest monsoon in 2025 arrived in West Bengal on May 29, but its progress was temporarily stalled, delaying the official onset over Kolkata by mid-to-late June. It officially retreated from the state on Oct 13, 2025, leaving the city with a 23% rainfall surplus.

Meanwhile, the city and most parts of south Bengal continued to be scorched by heat and humidity on Tuesday. While Kolkata recorded a maximum temperature of 35°C, the maximum relative humidity was 89%.

Thunderstorm and lightning with gusty winds struck some parts of East and West Burdwan, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Nadia, South and North 24 Parganas, and East Midnapore on Tuesday. Most of these places will continue to be lashed by sporadic thunderstorms and rain over the next three to four days. “But the relief will be temporary due to the high humidity levels. It will also increase the chances of thunderstorms,” said RMC weather scientist Sourish Bandopadhyay.