Mumbai receives moderate to heavy rain, effect of Cyclone Gulab to subside on Wednesday

Experts and officials have warned that moderate to heavy rain may continue during the day’s first half on Wednesday in Mumbai

The city experienced a final spell of heavy rains on Tuesday before the monsoon season closes out at the end of the month, due to the remnants of cyclonic storm Gulab travelling westward from Andhra Pradesh toward the Arabian Sea. Experts and officials have warned that moderate to heavy rains may continue during the day’s first half on Wednesday. The weather system’s influence over Mumbai and surrounding areas began around 5pm Tuesday.

The city experienced a final spell of heavy rain on Tuesday before the monsoon season closes out at the end of the month, due to the remnants of cyclonic storm Gulab travelling westward from Andhra Pradesh toward the Arabian Sea (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

As a result, most monitoring locations around the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) received between 40mm to 70mm of rain in 12 hours between 7am and 7pm. However, some areas in Thane and south Mumbai also received between 70mm to 100mm of rain. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) classifies 15.6-64.4mm as moderate rain while 64.5-115.5mm rain as heavy, 115.6-204.4mm as very heavy, over 204.5mm as extremely heavy rain, and over 300mm as exceptionally heavy rain.

Mumbai has been placed under a yellow category weather alert on September 28, indicating chances of “thunderstorm accompanied with lightning/gusty winds and heavy rain at isolated places,” while Thane and Palghar districts have been placed under an orange category weather alert indicating chances of “very heavy rain at isolated places.”

“Intensity of rains may pick up during the night, and the influence of the weather system will start receding during the second half of the day,” said a meteorologist with the IMD’s regional forecasting centre in Mumbai. The IMD has also forecast that some affected districts may continue to see strong winds between 30-40kmph, gusting at 50kmph in isolated places.

With the IMD’s monitoring station in Santacruz (taken as representative of the city) receiving 39.6mm of rain during the day on Tuesday, the total rainfall for the entire season (from June 1) stands at 3075mm, as against the seasonal normal of 2,205mm. This is an excess of about 38% and marks the third consecutive year that Mumbai has received seasonal rainfall in excess of the 3,000mm mark. Including the rains brought by Cyclone Tauktae in May, the total rainfall for the entire year stands at over 3,400mm. Between June and September last year the city had recorded a total 3,687mm of rain, stopping just 70mm short of 2020 being the wettest monsoon on record.