Yellow warning in Mumbai as moderate rains lash city

Throughout Friday, moderate showers continued to grip the city with the Santacruz observatory receiving 28 mm and Colaba observatory registering mm rain until 21 mm.

Sunil Kamble, director of IMD, Mumbai told The Indian Express that moderate and heavy rains are here to stay for the next few days. While the weather bureau has sounded yellow alert in Thane and Palghar districts until Tuesday, an orange alert has been issued in Raigad and Ratnagiri between Friday and Tuesday.

“It was observed that the wind pattern had strengthened owing to which we upgraded the warning to a yellow alert.

While moderate to heavy showers will continue, extreme weather events are unlikely on cards anytime soon. This is because there are no weather systems such as low-pressure areas or offshore troughs which rope in very heavy rains,” said Kamble.

The downpour has also put a dent to the rain deficit in Mumbai, which is currently reeling under a rain deficit of over 50 per cent. While Mumbai receives an average of 550 mm rain in June, IMD officials said that Santacruz station has received 288 mm rain so far. “With two more days of the month left, the city can make up its deficit to some extent in light of the ongoing spell of showers,” said an IMD official.

With the city clocking in nearly 80 mm rain between Thursday and Friday morning, several areas witnessed water logging, leading to traffic snarls across pockets of the city.

Amid heavy showers, Andheri subway–which is infamous for waterlogging–was shut for traffic on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, several low-lying areas such as Kurla’s LBS Marg, 90 feet road etc witnessed waterlogging while traffic snarls were reported along the approach roads leading up to newly launched coastal road route among other areas on Friday.

Meanwhile, the showers have brought respite from the heat. Three days after temperatures soared to 36.4 degrees, the temperatures dipped below 30 degrees on Friday with the temperatures in the suburbs as well as the island city division oscillating between 28 and 29 degrees Celsius.