Kolkata rain
Kolkata: Monsoon 2026 has brought bumper showers to Kolkata and most other parts of south Bengal despite a raging El Nino, which has been linked to a 13% rain deficit across the country. The monsoon is yet to withdraw from Bengal, but the city has already logged 1,718.9mm of rain between June and Sept, making it the second rainiest in the past decade. Climatologically, Kolkata should receive a seasonal rainfall of 1,345.5mm by the end of Sept. With 1,718.9mm of rain, the city has registered a 28% surplus rainfall, beating the El Nino trend. The last time in the past decade Kolkata received higher rainfall than this year was 2021, when it recorded 1,769.8mm of rain. Last year, the city recorded 1,659.2mm of monsoon rain.
The Met office expects the weather to remain mostly dry over the next few days. El Nino is an unusual warming of the sea water in Pacific Ocean, which weakens the monsoon flow in the Indian sub-continent and leads to below average rainfall. Met scientists attributed this year’s rain bounty to the formation of facilitating weather systems, such as low-pressure areas over Bay of Bengal, at regular intervals. The systems helped keep the monsoon flow active on most days. The last such system, a deep depression, triggered five consecutive days of rain.