‘Orange’ alert over Pune district on Friday, rainfall intensity to reduce

The IMD on Thursday said Southwest Monsoon will remain active over west, central, and peninsular India till July 18.

“But rainfall intensity over most parts of Maharashtra will reduce from Friday onwards,” said IMD officials.

Even on Thursday, rainfall intensity dropped with light rains reported across Pune city. The 12-hour rainfall recorded till 8.30 pm over city locations were – Chinchwad (37mm), Lohegaon (11.6mm), Lavale (15mm), Shivajinagar (10.4mm) and Magarpatta (5mm).

Earlier in the day, many areas in Maharashtra were among the country’s wettest areas, with Shirgaon recording 312 mm of rainfall, Vaitarna dam 252 mm, Tamhini 235 mm, Lonavala 218 mm, Mahabaleshwar 150 mm, Koyna 142 mm, Matheran 130 mm, and Mumbai – Santacruz and Dahanu (70mm each), during the past 24 hours.

Multiple weather systems favouring widespread rain are present over various parts of the country. The favourable weather systems are a low-pressure area located over south coastal Odisha, an east-west shear zone, and an active monsoon trough located to the south of its normal position. Maharashtra is also under the influence of strong westerly winds blowing from the Arabian Sea.

The Met department has advised people against venturing outdoors, especially to low-lying areas, river banks and ghat areas of Pune, Satara, Nashik, and Kolhapur.

Since June 1, Maharashtra has recorded 503.2 mm of rain, which was 44 per cent surplus, till July 14. All meteorological sub-divisions in the state have received rainfall either in the ‘excess’ or ‘large excess’ category.

Except Sangli (- 35 per cent), all districts have recorded normal or above rainfall this season so far.