Mumbai: After a dry spell of more than two weeks, Mumbai received its heaviest showers of August between Sunday and Monday, prompting the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to sound a ‘green’ (light to moderate rainfall) alert for the city until August 20. The weather bureau has also issued a warning of heavy rainfall in parts of Vidarbha, Marathwada, central Maharashtra and Konkan for the next three days.
“Parts of Vidarbha, Marathwada and Madhya Maharashtra are covered with clouds, as seen in the latest satellite observations,” tweeted K S Hosalikar, Scientist Head of SID, Climate and Research Services in Pune.
“Very dense clouds observed over entire Vidarbha and adjoining parts of Marathwada in the latest satellite observation. The mod patch extending up to south central Maharashtra, parts of Marathwada and Konkan too. Heavy rainfall warnings for Maharashtra for coming three days, especially for Marathwada region and it will be good for farmers in that region and adjoining areas, who are waiting for a good spell of rains for their crops,” Hosalikar said.
In the 24 hours ending at 8.30am, the city’s automatic weather station at Santacruz recorded 30.5mm of rain; however, the rainfall in the city subsided gradually, as Colaba recorded just 8.02mm of rain in the same period.
The Santacruz observatory had recorded 25.6mm of rain on Sunday, while Colaba recorded heavier showers with 42.8mm of rain in the same period.
The Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Mumbai centre on Monday predicted moderate rainfall across Mumbai and adjoining areas with on and off heavy showers expected in isolated places for the next 24 to 48 hours. Meteorologists and IMD officials attributed the revival to an upper air cyclonic circulation and low-pressure area forming over the Bay of Bengal, which has helped activate a monsoon trough along the Maharashtra coast and strengthened rain-bearing westerly winds.
“These are signs of a monsoon revival over the Konkan coast. Over Mumbai and adjoining areas, we will witness moderate to heavy rainfall for the next 48 hours. The next two to three days will see higher chances of moderate to heavy rains as per the current satellite images. There is a formation of low-pressure circulation over the Bay of Bengal and under its influence, entire Maharashtra is likely to experience an active rainfall spell during next 2-3 days with heavy to very heavy at isolated places in Marathwada with widespread rainfall and Madhya Maharashtra likely to receive rainfall at many places with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall in Ghat areas. Konkan (including Mumbai and Thane) is likely to receive widespread rainfall with heavy rainfall at isolated places,” said Shubhangi Bhute, scientist, IMD, regional centre, Mumbai.
The western suburbs of the city, in addition to Thane and Navi Mumbai, witnessed on-and-off spells of heavy rainfall throughout Sunday, recording between 40 to 70mm of rain in 24 hours ending 8.30am on Sunday. “More widespread rain is expected around August 19. The maximum and minimum temperatures, for the next week are expected to be 28° Celsius and 25° Celsius respectively,” Bhute added.
Total rainfall
Though the intensity of rains in the city and adjoining areas began to subside after July 21, in the week prior to that, the city witnessed heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, which led to more than 500mm of rain over the city.
During the week starting July 15, the city received 689.9mm rain, which is 251 per cent in excess of the weekly normal amount for the same period (196.7mm).
The total rainfall recorded between June 1 and August 16 at the Santacruz and Colaba observatories is 2,218.2 mm and 1,612.0mm respectively.
Lake level increases marginally
Meanwhile, the lake levels in the seven lakes supplying water to Mumbai has increased to 82.91 per cent of the total required water stock. According to BMC data, as of August 16, all seven lakes had 12,00,049 million litres of water in stock as against the total required capacity of 14,47,363 lakh million litres (water required for the annual supply to Mumbai). The water stock last year during the same time stood at 75.96 per cent, whereas it was 93.69 per cent in 2019.
