Mumbai: Even as people are running errands and doing their last-minute shopping for Lord Ganesha, who will arrive in most homes on Saturday, the Indian Meteorological Department upgraded the rain alert for Mumbai,Thane and Palghar to orange, which means heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places can be expected on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The IMD has meanwhile issued a yellow alert - heavy rain at isolated places - for Mumbai and adjoining areas on Sunday and Monday.
Mumbai's Santacruz observatory received 31.6 mm rain and Colaba recorded 63.2 mm rainfall in the 24 hours on Friday. Between 8.30 am to 5.30 pm on Friday the 20.6 mm rainfall was recorded by the Colaba Weather observatory, and 45.7 mm rainfall was recorded at Santacruz observatory during the same period.
The IMD classifies rainfall between 15.6 mm to 64.4 mm as moderate rainfall. Areas like Dahisar have recorded over 120 mm rainfall in the same period. "Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai received moderate to heavy widespread rainfall in 24 hours with one or two stations crossing 120 mm too. Latest radar/satellite images indicate a very active monsoon over Konkan,more on North Konkan including Mumbai, Thane. Trend to continue for the next 24 hours in the interiors too," said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general (western region), IMD.
According to private weather agency Skymet, the city has not experienced a dry spell since the beginning of August. In its daily weather bulletin, Skymet said: "Pleasant weather conditions and scattered rains are going on in Mumbai and suburbs for the past many days."
It added: "The cyclonic circulation is still persisting over Gujarat, a feeble offshore trough extending from Konkan and Goa to coastal Karnataka. Moderate humid winds are pushing moisture over the Maharashtra coast. On and off rain activities are expected to continue until August 23rd over many parts of Konkan and Goa as well as ghats of Madhya Maharashtra.
Mumbai will also continue with patchy rain and thundershower activities, and the weather will remain cloudy. Intermittent rain associated with cloudy skies will keep the weather of Mumbai and suburbs in a comfortable zone for at least the next 3 to 4 days." Skymet meteorologists predicted.
Meanwhile in Mumbai, total 10 tree fall incidents were recorded, three incidents of house/wall collapse, eight incidents of short circuit were recorded on Friday. The water stock in all seven lakes have crossed 90 percent on Friday morning.
