Trough still weak,monsoon delayed

Though the island city received 6.4 mm of rainfall and the suburbs received 8.2 mm of rainfall between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm on Sunday,the Met Department said these were just pre-monsoon showers. After missing the normal onset date of June 10,officials said the arrival of the south-west monsoon in Mumbai is now officially delayed. This is due to a slow progressing south-west monsoon.

The south-west monsoon is stagnated at its position as on June 6,having reached Harnai and Satara in Maharashtra. VK Rajeev,Director of weather forecast,India Meteorological Department (IMD),Mumbai,said,“The offshore trough is still very weak and thus the monsoon is not building up.”

Although weather officials had earlier predicted the monsoon to reach Mumbai by June 12,the date is now uncertain. “The arrival of the monsoon in Mumbai is delayed and at this point we cannot predict when it will arrive. However,the south-west monsoon is now gradually building up,” Rajeev said.

Meanwhile,the showers brought down temperatures in the city with Colaba recording a maximum temperature of 270 down from 35.50 the previous day while Santacruz recorded 310 ,down from 340 on Saturday. The weather department expects the sky to be mostly clear but rain or thundershowers to occur at a few places on Monday.