Despite IMD’s yellow alert in Mumbai, rain to continue for a week

Sunday recorded the lowest figures in rainfall in the past one week. The city has been recording rainfall in three digits following July 19, with Mumbai recording the wettest day of 2023 on July 22, recording 203.7 mm of rain in just 24 hours.

For Monday, the weather bureau has issued a yellow alert for Mumbai and Thane indicating moderate to light spells of rain in isolated locations. Between July 25 and 27, no alert has been issued indicating rainfall to recede slowly. For the Raigad and Palghar districts an orange alert is being issued for Monday and Tuesday.

“The rain will continue to stay though the intensity of spells will reduce… We haven’t issued any adverse warning for Mumbai as of now since the conditions appear to be favourable for the heavy rain to recede slowly. However, the forecast may change if a low pressure develops that may lead to increased spell of rain,” Sushma Nair, scientist from IMD Mumbai, told The Indian Express.
Nair said that at present, a cyclonic circulation is active, which is leading to continuous wet spells in the Konkan belt of Maharashtra.

Heavy rains resulted in potholes in many parts of the city; delay in running of trains led to heavy crowds at railway stations. (PTI, Reuters)

Meanwhile, the automatic weather system (AWS) of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recorded 16 mm in the western suburbs, followed by 13.86 in the eastern suburbs and 11.85 in island city between 8 am and 6 pm on Sunday.

Simultaneously, the water stock in lake levels of Mumbai touched 50.18 per cent on Sunday morning, which increased by seven per cent in the past 48 hours. Mumbai is looming under a 10 per cent water cut and the civic body had last week said that if the water levels touch 50 per cent by end of this month, then the chances of revoking the cut could be reconsidered. However, the BMC’s figure also states that the lake level is lowest in the past three years, as on July 23, 2022, the water stock stood at 87.45 per cent, while in 2021 it stood at 57 per cent.

The Tulsi Lake in Powai overflowed on Thursday afternoon when it reached the maximum capacity. This lake supplies non-potable water to Mumbai and is the smallest among the seven lakes. At present, Tansa lake is 89 per cent full to its entire capacity while Vihar lake is at 83 per cent of its capacity.