Brace for more heavy rain today

MUMBAI: Heavy rain that lashed Mumbai on Thursday is expected to continue on Friday, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting heavy to extremely heavy showers

MUMBAI: Heavy rain that lashed Mumbai on Thursday is expected to continue on Friday, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting heavy to extremely heavy showers. Mumbai and neighbouring Thane and Raigad will remain under an orange alert until July 5.

Mumbai woke up to yet another rainy day on Thursday, with waterlogging in many areas including Goregaon, Dadar and Parel. While the rain significantly subsided in the afternoon and evening, instances of falling trees and branches continued in various parts of the city.

According to the BMC’s disaster management department, eight persons sustained minor injuries after branches fell on them inside a private property, next to Raheja College in Santacruz. “A few workers were inspecting trees in the premises of an under-construction building when the branches fell on them,” said a civic official. After a child died in a tree collapse in Chembur on Tuesday, a tree fell on a few cars on B Road at Churchgate on Thursday. No one was injured.

Intense rain and strong winds continued throughout the night with many locations logging rainfall over 100 mm.

Heavy rains in the catchment areas of the seven lakes that supply drinking water to Mumbai also rose marginally, with storage increasing from 7.18% the previous day to 8.12% on Thursday.

IMD officials attributed strong monsoon conditions to an offshore trough from South Gujarat to Karnataka, an upper air cyclonic circulation over north Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood, and a trough from the above upper air cyclonic circulation over north Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood to the north-east Arabian Sea across south Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, north Maharashtra and Gujarat.