Heavy rains drench Mumbai on Tuesday evening
Mumbai experienced heavy pre-monsoon showers on Tuesday, causing traffic disruptions, waterlogging, and a yellow alert for thunderstorms till Friday.
MUMBAI: Mumbai was drenched in early pre-monsoon showers at 7 pm on Tuesday, as the weather kept its date with forecasters, pulling no surprises.
While the island city experienced only light showers, the downpour was particularly heavy in the suburbs, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Within an hour, Jogeshwari topped the rain hot-spots at 63mm, followed by Andheri East at 57mm. Powai recorded the most rainfall in the eastern suburbs with 38mm.
Between 8pm and 9pm, further north, Borivali recorded 61mm, Dahisar 53mm, Charkop 49mm and Malwani 49mm.
The sudden showers slowed evening peak-hour traffic in various places. The Andheri subway was closed to vehicular traffic at 8pm, leaving motorists at either end marooned.
Traffic also slowed to a crawl at Saki Naka, Malad subway, Goregaon, Dadar and other parts of the city. Due to the breakdown of a car near pole number 251 on the north-bound carriageway of the Eastern Freeway, traffic moved at snail’s pace for more than an hour.
In Powai, traffic was impacted due to a tree collapse, which caused critical head injuries to Shobha Torne, 40, and Prashant Torne, 45.
Visuals on social media showed Saki Naka under several feet of water, with two-wheelers being dragged and garbage floating. Waterlogging was seen in Mira Road, Andheri East and Chandivali.
Tuesday evening’s showers were in line with the yellow alerts forecast for the entire week over Maharashtra, due to pre-monsoon activity colliding with the swift advance of the monsoon in the south. By 6pm on Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) updated forecast continued to show a yellow alert – warning of thunderstorms accompanied by lightning, light to moderate rainfall and gusty winds (40- 50kmph) at isolated places – in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar till Friday.
Heavy rainfall was forecast for Tuesday night, till Friday.
After a lull between 9pm to 10pm, the rain picked up once again. Between 10pm and 11pm, the island city registered 12.86mm, the western suburbs 15.65mm and eastern suburbs 26.63mm. Towards midnight, rain picked up in the island city and some parts of the Eastern suburbs, as well as till Andheri, but stayed under the 20-mm mark.
“An upper air circulation and low-pressure area is forming over the Arabian Sea, off the Karnataka coast, causing the likelihood rainfall over Maharashtra from Wednesday till Sunday,” said Shubhangi Bhute, head of IMD, Mumbai. Asked whether Cyclone Shakti would affect the state, she said it was too early to tell.
Other parts of Maharashtra are scheduled to experience heavier bouts of rainfall, with Sindhudurg assigned a red alert till Wednesday, 8:30am. Ratnagiri, Ahilyanagar, Pune, Kolhapur, Satara, Sholapur, Dharashiv, and Latur were expected to experience heavy showers too.
In Mumbai, suburban rail services were not impacted by Tuesday’s unseasonal showers, but a landslide occurred between Veravali and Vilavade stations in Ratnagiri on the Konkan Railway. This briefly impacted long-distance train services on the railway.
Konkan Railway officials said the landslide took place at 6:30 pm, breaking the fencing as well. “The site was cleared by 8 pm and train operations were restored,” said an official.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will meet with officers of the departments concerned on Wednesday to assess Mumbai’s rain-preparedness.
