Mumbai braces for rainy weekend; Thane, Palghar also under IMD warning today

IMD’s forecast for Mumbai

In its five-day forecast, the IMD has maintained a yellow alert for Mumbai until Sunday, August 2. This means that ‘heavy’ rainfall shall continue to lash the financial capital.

Meanwhile, Palghar, Raigad and Thane districts will continue to receive ‘very heavy’ rainfall under an orange alert until Saturday, August 1.

Sometime on Saturday, the ‘very heavy’ rainfall over Palghar and Thane is expected to ease, with the IMD’s orange alert being downgraded to yellow. Raigad, on the other hand, will continue to have an orange alert until Sunday.

Meanwhile, after recording a rain deficit in June due to late onset of the monsoon, Mumbai surpassed its monthly average rainfall quota by an overwhelming 66 per cent in July.

According to the IMD, the Santacruz observatory recorded 1,491.9 mm of rainfall between July 1 and 30 – 66 per cent more than its monthly average of 898.4 mm. Meanwhile, the coastal observatory at Colaba has recorded 1,176.8 mm during this period – 41 per cent more than the monthly average of 823.4 mm.

“There was a prediction of inadequate rainfall earlier this year, for which the monsoon onset over Mumbai took place at least 15 days late. Because of this, Mumbai recorded inadequate rainfall in June. However, in July, the rainfall situation picked up and as a result, the city surpassed its normal quota of rainfall,” weather officials told The Indian Express.

The IMD figures show that last month, Mumbai’s Santacruz recorded 414 mm or only 77 per cent of its average June rainfall quota, while the coastal observatory at Colaba recorded 441.1 mm or 81 per cent of its monthly quota of 537.1 mm.

This year, rainfall activity picked up in the first week of July even though the monsoon arrived only in the last week of June. Between July 1 and 6, the Santacruz and Colaba observatories recorded a mammoth 898.4 mm and 823.4 mm of rainfall. Following this, the rainfall became more sporadic, only to pick up pace during the last week of July, driven by the rainfall activity in Gujarat.

“At present, there is a shear zone comprising a low-pressure system over the western coast of India that is resulting in a surge in the rainfall at the Konkan belt. This system will gradually move northwards in the next 48 hours, following which rainfall will start to reduce gradually over Mumbai,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the IMD’s data shows that in the last 24 hours, Mumbai’s Santacruz observatory recorded 3.4 mm of rainfall, while the Colaba observatory recorded 1.8 mm. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) automatic weather system (AWS) data indicate that Mumbai’s eastern suburbs have recorded 7.33 mm of rainfall, western suburbs recorded 5.11 mm, and the island city recorded 4.67 mm in the past 24 hours.