Parts of Mumbai receive over 130 mm of rain in 6 hours as incessant downpour continues

The heavy downpour has triggered waterlogging in several locations, leaving residents to wade through ankle-length waters. The Andheri subway has been shut for traffic. The civic body has pressed water pumps into service across other low-lying areas like in the subways at Malad, Dahisar, Mankhurd, Khar and Poisar to prevent waterlogging.

Colaba crosses the 1000-mm rain mark

Coming along the heels of the Santacruz station surpassing the 1,000-mm mark, the Colaba observatory too crossed the mark in July by registering 1,044 mm rain on Sunday morning.

IMD data showed that between Saturday and Sunday morning, its Santacruz recording station registered 93 mm of rain even as the Colaba coastal observatory only recorded 22 mm of rain. Meanwhile, records from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s automatic weather station showed that the eastern suburbs received the highest average at 72 mm, followed by the island city division (71 mm) and the western suburbs (59 mm).

Since the onset of the monsoon, the Colaba station has received 1,551 mm of rain—1,044 mm of it in July alone. The Santacruz station recorded 1,580 mm rainfall between June and now. Of this, 1,233 mm of rain has been recorded in July.

Having already surpassed the 1,000-mm rainfall mark, Mumbai is clocking in excess rainfall this month, as the Santacruz station records 855.7 mm and the Colaba observatory 754 mm rain on an average in July.

According to the IMD, the city is in for a rainy week ahead with a yellow alert issued for Mumbai for the period from Sunday to Wednesday. The IMD has stated that Mumbai and Thane are likely to witness heavy rain in isolated pockets over the next few days. For Raigad district, meanwhile, the department has issued an orange alert (heavy to very heavy rain) for the period from Sunday to Tuesday.

43.4% water stock in lakes

With rain continuing unabated, Mumbai’s lakes have been replenishing over the past few days. The total stock in the seven lakes catering to the city’s water demands touched 43.41 per cent—amounting to 6.28 lakh million litres—on Sunday morning. This is marginally higher than last year, when the stock remained at 42.75 per cent on the same day. In 2022, meanwhile, the lake levels had soared to nearly 89 per cent during the same period.

Earlier, the Tulsi lake, which is the smallest of the seven, started overflowing on Saturday morning. When 100 per cent full, the lake has a total live storage capacity of 8,046 million litres, and it provides 18 million litres of water to Mumbai per day.

Mumbai witnessed 23 tree collapses as well as 10 short circuits between Saturday and Sunday, with the most cases reported from the BMC’s city division. No casualties were reported, according to officials.

During the same period, four partial house collapses were reported, one of them claiming the life of a 70-year-old passerby and injuring four people when portions of a century-old MHADA cess building in Grant Road collapsed on Saturday.