There is threat of a thunderstorm in Kolkata today, which will host one of two IPL6 matches scheduled for Sunday.

The game between hosts Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. The thunderstorm could break out even earlier in the day, well before start of play, according to one forecast.

The presence of a trough with unpredictable weather makes the eastern metropolis vulnerable; the trough starts from the foothills of the Himalayas and cuts across Gangetic West Bengal on its way to South Odisha.

The direction of winds blowing into the trough would be west-southwesterly from the Bay.

Moisture mopped up from the Bay is expected to rise rapidly over hot land, cool immediately to cause instability in the atmosphere, giving rise to likely stormy weather.

Overcast in the morning, maximum temperatures are expected to peak at over 39 deg Celsius with skies turning partly cloudy in the breezy afternoon and humidity scaling up to beyond a muggy 75 deg Celsius.

The India Meteorological Department has forecast thundershowers over Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal, all in the neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, weather for the night game at Jaipur is expected to stay more or less clear despite the presence of a western disturbance over West Rajasthan, not far off.

The thundershowers are likely to be confined to an arc linking Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and North Haryana and not venture west to southwest to Jaipur.

Humidity will be low, with northeasterly winds expected to clock no more than 5 km/hr. All in all, perfect conditions for play in the Pink City.

>vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in