First Kalbaishakhi of the season hits Kolkata

The first Kalbaishakhi of 2019 has hit the city of Kolkata on Friday afternoon. The weather took a sudden turn on the sunny Friday afternoon following which it stormed and rained heavily for quite sometimes. The Regional Meteorological Centre at Alipore reported that the first Norwester of the season has hit the city of joy and thundershowers are most likely to occur in other places too like Sikkim, Jharkhand, Odisha, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, East, and West Midnapore, North 24-Parganas and Jhargram. Due to this, the temperature during the day might increase by 2-3 degrees for the next few days. Due to the sudden thunderstorm and rain, train and flight services were disrupted. The Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport was not operational for almost half an hour due to the storm and gusty winds which prevented the aircraft from taking off or landing. The train services were affected in both Howrah and Sealdah sections with long-haul trains leaving the station late for its destinations. The sudden storm took a toll on the traffic too with vehicle movements slowing down and even coming to a halt in some places as trees got uprooted and blocked the roads. However, Kolkata Police and Disaster Management Group managed the situation quite well and cleared the roads in a few hours.