Vikhroli records highest amount of rainfall in 5 hours

Even though it did not rain during most of Sunday, rainfall activity accompanied by lightning and thunderstorms began around 8pm in some parts of the city and picked up by 9pm

Mumbai: Less than 24 hours after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declared the early arrival of monsoon in Mumbai two days before the scheduled date of June 12, the city on Monday woke up to an overcast sky devoid of rain. In the last 24 hours, ending at 8.30am on Monday, the Santacruz IMD weather station recorded 69mm of rain, meanwhile, Colaba recorded 53mm.

Waterlogging in Pratiksha Nagar, Sion area in Mumbai due to heavy rains on Monday evening. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

IMD has issued a ‘yellow alert’, thunderstorms with lightning heavy rain and gusty winds (50-60kmph) at isolated places in the city.

Even though it did not rain during most of Sunday, rainfall activity accompanied by lightning and thunderstorms began around 8pm in some parts of the city and picked up by 9pm. It started pounding after 10pm and continued post-midnight, till around 1am, causing water to log in many areas around south and central Mumbai, exacerbated by the high tide of 3.74 meters. The Andheri subway and Parel TT bridge were shut for around two hours till rainwater receded.

According to BMC, Tagore Nagar, Vikhroli, recorded the highest rainfall of 158.2 mm in just five hours, from 8pm to 1am. During the five hours, the city area’s average rainfall was 99.11mm. The eastern suburbs recorded 61.29 mm, while the western suburbs recorded 73.78 mm.

These included Britannia Storm Water Pumping Station in Reay Road (132.56mm), Dadar Fire Station (104.13mm), Dahisar Fire Station (116.06mm), F South Ward Office in Parel (119.62mm), G South Ward Office in Prabhadevi (113.27mm) SWD Workshop Dadar (122.18mm) and Worli Fire Station (109.96 mm).

Residents expressed their outrage about waterlogging within a few hours of rain at the infamous Hindmata, Dadar, Byculla, Sewri station, Worli, Vikhroli, Tagore Nagar, Lalbaugh, Wadala, Sakinaka, Mulund, Bhandup, Vidyavihar, Dahisar Check Naka, Veera Desai, Bandra West, Vile parle, Malad, and more.

With several areas waterlogged the previous night, Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray, on Monday morning, took to X to question the whereabouts of municipal authorities and other agencies in charge of the cities. “The absence of elected representatives in municipal corporations has isolated these agencies and away from public feedback. Usually, there is a mechanism of public feedback and coordination with infrastructure agencies and service providers. Pumps are placed and activated for water logging to be avoided. But this year, the first rain has seen the municipal corporations of Mumbai and Pune, directly run by the BJP-mindhe regime, completely unprepared for the rains, despite the Met dept forecasting it,” said Thackeray.

Meanwhile, the arrival of monsoon brought down morning temperatures on Monday, though humidity levels were high. While Santacruz recorded a minimum temperature of 24.2 degrees Celsius, 2.4 below normal, with 94% humidity at 8.30 am, Colaba recorded a minimum of 23.5, 2.9 degrees below normal, with 88% humidity.