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KOLKATA: Even as Met office is yet to get a clear idea as to when monsoon will hit Kolkata, pre-monsoon showers are on its way. Starting Sunday , the city might get its share of pre-monsoon rain on regular basis, till the Southwest monsoon arrives in full swing. In such case these frequent showers will salvage the city from the extreme heat and high discomfort index.

“The chances of rain or thundershower activities are bright from Sunday onwards. We expect such showers in the run upto the monsoon, on alternate days if not daily, through the first week of June. This ultimately will push the mercury down,” said GK Das, director (weather) at Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata.

Currently there is a trough of low pressure extending from Punjab to Manipur across Jharkhand and Gangetic West Bengal. This system is expected to trigger the pre-monsoon showers. With cloud building up over Kolkata sky, the city will also get a shield from the scorcher. In fact this is the system that has been triggering thundershower in parts of South Bengal in the past couple of days.

Met office however says that it is too early to predict the date of monsoon’s arrival into the city. Under normal conditions monsoon it should hit the city around June 8, with an error margin of plus/minus four days. In 2018, monsoon arrived in the city on June 11.

