View source for Kolkata

====Rainfall====

Rains brought by the Bay of Bengal branch of the [[Southwest monsoon|south-west summer monsoon]]<ref name="monsoontribune">{{Cite news |last1=Khichar |first1=M. L. |last2=Niwas |first2=R. |date=14 July 2003 |title=Know your monsoon |newspaper=The Tribune |location=Chandigarh, India |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030714/agro.htm#2 |access-date=9 June 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070618121810/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030714/agro.htm#2 |archive-date=18 June 2007}}</ref> lash Kolkata between June and September, supplying it with most of its annual rainfall of about {{cvt|1850|mm|in|0}}. The highest monthly rainfall total occurs in July and August. In these months often incessant rain for days brings life to a stall for the city dwellers. The city receives 2,107 hours of sunshine per year, with maximum [[Insolation|sunlight exposure]] occurring in April.<ref name="ESS" /> Kolkata has been hit by several cyclones; these include systems occurring in [[1737 Calcutta cyclone|1737]] and [[1864 Calcutta cyclone|1864]] that killed thousands.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bilham |first=Roger |year=1994 |title=The 1737 Calcutta earthquake and cyclone evaluated |journal=Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America |volume=84 |issue=5 |pages=1650–57 |doi=10.1785/BSSA0840051650 |bibcode=1994BuSSA..84.1650B |s2cid=130396862 |url=http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/gif_images/1737Calcutta.pdf |access-date=20 July 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811224058/http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/gif_images/1737Calcutta.pdf |archive-date=11 August 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Report on the Calcutta cyclone of the 5th October 1864 |last1=Gastrell |first1=James Eardley |first2=Henry Francis |last2=Blanford |year=1866 |publisher=O.T. Cutter, Military Orphan Press |location=Calcutta |url=https://archive.org/details/reportoncalcutt00blangoog |access-date=20 July 2011}}</ref> More recently, [[Cyclone Aila]] in 2009 and [[Cyclone Amphan]] in 2020 caused widespread damage to Kolkata by bringing catastrophic winds and torrential rainfall.

{{Kolkata weatherbox}}