Despite a delayed onset of monsoon this year, Mumbai has recorded 13% more rainfall than last year, between June and September. Monsoon onset in Mumbai took place on June 25 this year and monsoon retreat is likely to begin around October 15. At present, monsoon withdrawal has started in Rajasthan. The months between June and September are known to record peak monsoon rainfall and officials from India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that rainfall recorded from October 1 onwards aren’t classified as monsoon rain. Between June 1 and September 30 this year the IMD’s Santacruz observatory recorded 2977.5 mm rainfall, which is 28.4% more than the seasonal average of 2318.8 mm. July recorded 1769.8 mm of rain, which is 60% of the total rain recorded during these four months while June recorded 549.1 mm of rainfall. Also, this year, the city recorded the driest August since 2015, by recording a meagre 176.8 mm of rain against its monthly normal figure of 566.4 mm, thus indicating a rainfall deficit by 70%. However, the shortfall was recovered in the following month as September recorded 482.6 mm of rainfall, surpassing its monthly quota by 42%. Earlier in 2022, between June 1 and September 30, Mumbai recorded 2631.9 mm of rain, with 1244.6 mm being recorded in July, followed by 551.8 mm in August, 543.7 mm in September and 291.8 mm in June. Ahead of monsoon onset, experts from the IMD had said that Maharashtra will experience normal monsoon by 96% in 2023, which means that the state would record an average rainfall of 87 mm daily. Sunil Kamble, scientist who heads IMD, Mumbai, told The Indian Express that this year Mumbai saw fairly decent rain. “The lion’s share of rainduring this monsoon was recorded in the month of July, however if we see overall statistics then we can safely state that Mumbai has experienced good rainfall this year throughout the official monsoon calendar, since rainfall figures from October 1 will not be considered as monsoon showers,” Kamble told The Indian Express on Saturday. #MumbaiRains #SoundOn | Heavy rains, thunder and lightning in amboli, Andheri West. Follow Live Updates: Express video by Srishti Kapoor pic.twitter.com/ssxPxVxdrH — Express Mumbai (@ie_mumbai) September 28, 2023 This year, Mumbai also saw a non-uniform pattern of rain throughout the season, which resulted in heavy showers touching three figures for a few days, while for the remaining days the proportion of rain was barely moderate. “Earlier, we used to get uniform rainfall throughout four months, however, this is not happening now. We cannot attribute the non-uniform pattern of rainfall with climate change because this may also be a result of variability of monsoon pattern,” Kamble said. Meanwhile, water stock in all the seven lakes of Mumbai stood at 99.23% on Saturday morning. Last year on September 30, the overall stock stood at 98.56%, while in 2021, the stock was around 98.77%. During the monsoon season, the catchment areas of Tulsi Lake recorded 4,164 mm of rainfall, followed by 3,340 mm in Modak Sagar, 3,052 mm in Vehar Lake, 2,864 mm in Tansa, 2,673 mm in Bhatsa, 2,500 mm in Middle Vaitarna, followed by 2,610 mm in Upper Vaitarna. Yellow alert The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its 3 pm bulletin has issued a yellow alert in Mumbai for Saturday and Sunday (October 1) indicating moderate to heavy rainfall. Sushma Nair, scientist at IMD, Mumbai, said that at present, a depression has developed in the Arabian Sea that may lead to intense rainfall over the megapolis. However, Nair maintained that the rains may gradually start to decrease from early next week onwards.
