Heavy downpour continues to batter MMR; no slowdown on cards

Like its neighbouring districts, Mumbai is also poised for torrential rainfall until the end of this week, with the weather bureau issuing an orange alert across the city till July 5 owing to the possibility of heavy downpour.

According to meteorologists, rain activity is poised to gather pace and remain intense till July 7 owing to the influence of multiple active monsoon systems. Currently, an upper air cyclonic circulation lies over Bay of Bengal and its neighbourhood, which is expected to influence the formation of a low-pressure area by July 3.

A low pressure area is one where pressures are lower than the surrounding region, ushering in moisture and triggering intensive downpour.

Additionally, a trough presently runs over the upper air cyclonic circulation while an off-shore trough at mean sea level is likely to prevail in the next one week.

Wednesday’s wet spell

Amid favourable monsoon factors, data from the IMD’s observatory and civic automatic weather stations showed that between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, Mumbai’s Santacruz station received 96.3 mm rain while Colaba station recorded 69.6 mm rain. In Navi Mumbai region, Belapur station received 155 mm rainfall, Koparkhairne recorded 141 mm rainfall while Thane received 109 mm rain and Bhiwandi drew 162 mm rainfall.

The showers continued into Wednesday, showing no signs of slowdown during the period with the IMD even issuing a “red” nowcast warning at 12.30 pm for Mumbai and nearby districts of Thane and Palghar owing to “intense spells”.

Between 8 am and 6 pm on Wednesday, Tagore Nagar in Vikhroli drew 143 mm rain, Powai clocked 140 mm rain, Bhandup recorded 139 mm rainfall, followed by Santacruz station which received 137 mm rain, while Andheri logged 125 mm.

During the same period, Thane received 99.02 mm rainfall. Meanwhile, between 8.30 am and 2 pm, Navi Mumbai’s Belapur received 95 mm rain while Digha registered 86 mm and Airoli received 84.60 mm rainfall.

The unabated showers came along the heels of a high tide which left low-lying pockets of Mumbai inundated, triggering traffic snarls and impeding movement for pedestrians.

While traffic slowed down in Khar owing to waterlogging at Khar subway, vehicular movement came to complete standstill owing to accumulation of rain water at Andheri subway.

Besides Andheri subway, water logging was also reported along Andheri’s SV road. Meanwhile, roads were also submerged in pockets of Kurla East, Ghatkopar, Powai, Bhandup, Mulund and other areas of eastern suburbs which recorded the heaviest spells of rainfall during the day.

The submerged streets impeded vehicular movement across the city with severe traffic reported along Mumbai’s major arterial routes including the Western Express Highway, Eastern Express Highway, JVLR, New Link road as well as SV road.

On Wednesday, between 8 am and 6 pm, at least 45 instances of tree collapses were reported across the city with the highest number of incidents reported in the western suburbs while three incidents of partial house collapses were reported. In Navi Mumbai, meanwhile, at least seven incidents of tree fall were reported.