Monsoon to arrive in Mumbai over this weekend: IMD officials

Speaking to The Indian Express, IMD Mumbai scientist Sushma Nair said, “The conditions look favourable and we are expecting the monsoon to arrive by this weekend, sometime between June 23 and June 25. There is a possibility of good rain in the upcoming week.”

Mahesh Palawat, weather expert and meteorologist of Skymet Weather Services, said that this year’s monsoon could be touted as the most delayed monsoon in a decade.

“Monsoon currents were obstructed by Cyclone Biparjoy, which pulled the moisture away from the Indian mainland. So until June 15, when the cyclone made its downfall, it was restricting the flow of south westerly winds from the Arabian Sea that would have brought the monsoon in. Unfortunately, later also we did not witness any strong monsoon surge over the west coast,” Palawat told The Indian Express on Thursday.

Though parts of coastal Karnataka and Kerala received occasional heavy showers, the real monsoon surge necessary to pull monsoons over to Indian mainland, including coastal areas as well as interior parts of Maharashtra and southern part of Gujarat was almost absent, he said.

“Now, the westerly winds have strengthened so rain activity will start increasing in a day or two. Monsoon will make its onset over Mumbai in the next two days. Thereafter, rain activities will also intensify in the interior parts of Maharashtra,” said Palawat.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Anupam Kashyapi, scientist and head of IMD’s weather forecasting division, said, “For Pune and Mumbai, monsoon is just knocking at the door. All conditions are almost set for onset. The relative humidity has increased, westerly winds are existing and will strengthen in the coming days.”

Meanwhile, several pockets of the city experienced light rain on Wednesday. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, while Mumbai city recorded 0.59 mm of rainfall, its eastern suburbs and the western suburbs recorded 0.40 mm and 0.39 mm of rain respectively on Wednesday.