Rain brings respite from Mumbai’s dry weather, more in store, says IMD 

Bringing respite from the city’s dry and warm weather, several pockets of Mumbai, particularly the eastern suburbs such as Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Powai, Chembur etc, and neighbouring districts of Thane, experienced brief spells of showers and thunderstorm activity on Tuesday morning, followed by overcast skies throughout the day. The showers and cloudy skies drove down the heat levels as the IMD’s Santacruz and Colaba stations recorded 34 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.

Despite the brief spell, several pockets of the city including Kurla, Vikhroli, Sakinaka and some low lying areas experienced water logging, inconveniencing pedestrians and triggering traffic snarls during the early hours.

“Even with little showers, Sakinaka and Kherani road get flooded. Despite the rainfall in the morning, stagnant water remained in place until the late on Tuesday next to the L&T flyover near Saki Vihar Road. A single shower exposes the monsoon preparedness of BMC, which has an annual budget of Rs. 74,000 crores. This is the condition of the financial capital of India,” said Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association (CCWA).

According to the IMD, the city will continue to experience light to moderate showers along with thunderstorms over the next four to five days until Saturday. While no alerts have been sounded for the metropolis, its neighbouring districts have been placed under ‘yellow alert’ over the coming days.

In Thane and Raigad, for instance, a yellow alert with the likelihood of ‘ thunderstorms accompanied with lightning, light to moderate rainfall and gusty winds ‘ has been sounded until Friday at least.

This spell of showers came along the heels of the city experiencing intermittent spells of heavy rain and gusty winds for four consecutive days last week. In what has already made this month Mumbai’s wettest month since 2021, the Colaba coastal observatory logged 61.3mm rain until Tuesday morning, while the Santacruz observatory registered 38mm rain thus far.
Senior officials from IMD Mumbai attributed the current spell of pre-monsoon activity to a low lying trough, which has led to wind discontinuity and change in weather patterns.