Amid yellow alert, 60 mm rain sweeps city on Fri; Lake levels surpass 99 pc

However, on Friday morning the city woke up to overcast skies and rain activity gathered pace during the day in an unexpected spell. In light of the rain activity, the IMD sounded a yellow alert stating the possibility of thunderstorms with lightning, gusty winds and moderate showers in Mumbai and its neighbouring districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad.

Records showed that between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm on Friday, the Santacruz station received 60 mm rainfall even as the Colaba station clocked in only 1 mm rainfall during the same period. Besides island city, several other pockets where the IMD had sounded a yellow alert remained dry on Friday. This includes Alibag station which received only 5 mm rainfall, Ratnagiri station that recorded 2 mm rainfall and Dahanu in Palghar district which logged in no rainfall.

Explaining the rain activity, Athreya Shetty, an independent weather forecaster told The Indian Express, “Currently, there is a circulation over Madhya Maharashtra region while there is also a lot of moisture in the air as monsoon winds are in the flat pattern. Together, these factors have led to rain activity over the past few days including Friday. Besides this, generally, day time heating also leads to thundershowers popping in during the latter half.”

While the IMD has issued no alerts for the next four days stating possibility of light to moderate rainfall, weather observers have stated that thunderstorms are likely to continue in the region.

Even as September is the driest of the four monsoon months in Mumbai, the city has been experiencing continuous spells of showers over the past two weeks. While the city receives an average of only 359 mm rainfall in the month of September, the suburban station has already clocked in over 330 mm rainfall so far.

In light of the continued spells, the total stock in the seven lakes supplying Mumbai’s daily potable water finally surpassed the 99 per cent of the total capacity on Friday. At 99.32 per cent, the lake levels soared to 14.37 lakh litres which is the highest in the past three years.

Last year, on the same day, the lake levels had remained at 98.61 per cent while in 2023, the total water stock touched 97 per cent during the same period.

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