Mumbai on red alert, chances of over 200mm rain in some parts on Thursday: IMD

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) upgraded the weather alert for Mumbai from orange category to red category, indicating widespread heavy to very heavy rains across the city, with chances of extremely heavy rain in excess of 204

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) upgraded the weather alert for Mumbai from orange category to red category, indicating widespread heavy to very heavy rains across the city, with chances of extremely heavy rain in excess of 204.5mm in isolated locations on July 22, along with chances of occasional gusty winds of 40-50 kmph, gusting to 60 kmph in some areas.

HT Image

IMD had initially predicted an orange category alert for July 21 and 22 which was upgraded at 1pm Wednesday. “A yellow alert indicating mainly heavy rainfall was there for Mumbai only for July 20. For July 21 we had already indicated chances of very heavy rainfall with orange alert. This has been upgraded today to red alert, indicating chances of extremely heavy rain, keeping in mind the synoptic situation,” said a meteorologist with IMD in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the city woke up to its fourth consecutive day of rainfall on Wednesday, recording 23.9mm of rain in the 24 hours ending 8.30am, down from 38.4mm recorded in the 24 hours before that. The day also saw another 50.2mm till 5.30pm.

“These rains are not thunderstorms like we saw on early Sunday. It is the result of very strong westerly winds bringing in moisture from an active monsoon trough that runs along coastal Maharashtra. There is a high chance of Mumbai getting another 50mm to 100mm of rain on Thursday. Most monitoring stations across the city and suburbs saw between 50 and 80mm of rain on Wednesday. The distribution will persist, but intensity may vary from place to place,” said the IMD official.

An off-shore monsoon trough at mean sea level near the Maharashtra coast is likely to remain vigorous for the next three to four days along with a shear zone in the mid-tropospheric level, and Mumbai will continue to see an active monsoon spell for the “next four-five days with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places”, IMD had said in a bulletin released on Tuesday.

A cyclonic circulation over south Gujarat and a low-pressure area forming in the Bay of Bengal around July 23 will also facilitate heavy rains in the Konkan coast for a few days. There is a chance of decreasing rains only after July 24, officials said.

The total rainfall for the month of July now stands at just more than 1,000mm, in excess of the 827-mm normal set by IMD. Mumbai has received 1,993.9mm of rain this season so far which 90.5% of the total seasonal normal up to September-end. Officials said the rainfall record for July is extremely likely to cross the 2,000-mm mark by early Thursday. During last monsoon, the city had recorded 1,469mm rain in July.