Monday began overcast, presenting Puja shoppers with the perfect conditions, but a smart shower in the afternoon spoiled the fun.
The weatherman predicts such weather to persist for at least the next couple of days.
"I was shopping at New Market from around 3pm and my husband was supposed to join me after office. But I got drenched in the rain and the plan had to be cut short," said Debjani Ganguly, a homemaker from Beleghata who had to forgo a second round of shopping and plans of dining out.
The Alipore Met office recorded 10.7mm of rain on Monday, most of it between 4pm and 5pm, taking the month's total rainfall to 86.8mm in eight days, a surplus of 113.3 per cent.
In keeping with the trend continuing since the onset of the monsoon, the rainfall distribution across the city was uneven, with north getting less than the south. While Alipore recorded 8mm, Dum Dum received only 0.7mm of rain.
"Calcutta will continue to get rain for the next couple of days and the sky will be overcast because of a low-pressure trough that is on the Odisha coast at the moment," said Gokul Chandra Debnath, the director of the India Meteorological Department, Calcutta.
The trough has moved from the Bengal coast since Sunday but that does not change the rain forecast, said experts.
"The trough is causing heavy moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal, leading to the formation of rain clouds," Debnath said. "Rainfall is forecast for the whole of south Bengal at least till Wednesday."
Monday morning was warm, with the Alipore Met office recording 29.2�C at 8.30am and 32.8�C three hours later. The maximum temperature for the day, recorded a little later, was 33.6�C, a notch above normal ' a three-degree jump from the maximum temperature of 30.6�C recorded on Sunday, one of the lowest of the season.
But the sultry conditions did not stay long. A little after mid-day, a cloud cover developed, causing the temperature to plummet by almost six degrees, to reach 27.8�C at 2.30pm. It soon started to rain, bringing down the mercury further to 25.8�C at 5.30pm.
The total October rainfall so far this year has already shot past the aggregate for the entire month in 2002, 2009 and 2011. The highest rainfall in a single day so far this month was recorded on Thursday, 48.7mm.