Mumbai: Despite arriving late in Mumbai city by around 15 days, rainfall during July 1 till the month-end was the second-highest ever recorded since the year 1959, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The city recorded 1,464.5mm of rainfall this month till now and is just short of the 1,468.5 mm it got in July 2014. “Due to the heavy rains since the beginning of the month, the city recorded 89 per cent of rainfall, making it the second-highest in the last 60 years,” KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, IMD said.
In the last 24 hours, the Colaba observatory recorded 46.4mm of rainfall in the city and 65.1mm of rainfall in the suburbs. As per IMD data, the total amount of rainfall recorded by Colaba and Santazruz observatory since June till now is around 1,516.2mm and 1,979.9mm respectively.
The weather bureau said that the maximum quantum of the total rain recorded so far was received between July 1-2, when 375.2 mm was recorded over 24 hours, followed by July 26-27,
which saw a 219.2 mm record. It said such short and intense spells are becoming more frequent now. This year, rainfall exceeded the average for the month, which is 840 mm, on July 20.
“July has been a rainy month for Mumbai with three-digit rains also making an appearance thrice this time. Moreover, in just the first few days of July, Mumbai had already surpassed its July normal of 840.7 mm,” said an official.
IMD official said usually the intensity of rainfall in July is around 686mm in the city and 799mm in the suburbs. But this time it has recorded more than a double, making it the second-highest.
“Due to the torrential rain and low pressure area created in the Bay of Bengal and about four good spells of rain since the beginning of the month, due to which the rain graph rose, it led to the record level that has been recorded in a short time,” Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, Skymet said.
