Mumbai got heavy rains during the night, but worst is over

Despite predictions of heavy rains during the day, officials say that the most intense showers have passed by the city at night, and that the day is likelier to see only light to moderate showers

Mumbai received 78.7mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending 8.30am Wednesday, owing to the passage of a low pressure zone (originating from the Bay of Bengal) over the Konkan coast. Despite predictions of heavy rains during the day, officials say that the most intense showers have passed by the city at night, and that the day is likelier to see only light to moderate showers.

People at Marine Drive during heavy rain in Mumbai. (File photo)

“The rains which began late last night were the result of easterly winds brought on because of the low pressure area, which passed almost directly over northern Mumbai. As a result, the suburbs got more rain than South Mumbai. The low pressure area is travelling quite fast, and since it has moved beyond the city and towards Gujarat, there is no worry of flooding in Mumbai,” said a meteorologist with the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) regional centre in Mumbai.

A popular independent weather forecaster, who goes by the name of Weatherman of Mumbai on social media, said Mumbai had “a narrow miss” on Wednesday morning, after initially speculating that the city may receive over 300mm of rain between September 7 and 8. Doppler radar images from this morning showed rain-bearing clouds dumping moisture a few kilometres off the coast, after being pushed seaward by easterly winds. Experts have said that unless the wind direction changes to westerlies, there will be no heavy showers in Mumbai during the day.

However, officials have asked citizens to remain alert and continue following IMD’s official warnings. KS Hosalikar, head of IMD’s surface instrument division in Pune, pointed out that the latest available satellite images (from 9.30am) show formations of very dense cloud mass over the north Arabian Sea, particularly over Palghar, Dahanu, Daman and north Konkan region, along with scattered clouds over northern madhya Maharashtra and north Marathwada, indicating that there is still some chance of heavy rains in the region.

The IMD has placed Mumbai, Thane and the remainder of the Konkan districts on orange alert for today, while Palghar has been placed under a red category alert, indicating chances of very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain at isolated locations.