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Heavy rains likely in city for two days: IMD
Mumbai is expected to experience heavy rain this week, despite the forecast of below average rainfall for most of the country due to El Nino. The Indian Meteorological Department has placed the city on a 'yellow' alert for Wednesday and Thursday, indicating the likely possibility of heavy rain in isolated places.
Mumbai: Even as El Nino is likely to intensify from this month resulting in below average rainfall for most parts of the country, Mumbai’s forecast indicated a short spell of heavy rain.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has placed the city on ‘yellow’ alert for Wednesday and Thursday, indicating the very likely possibility of heavy rain in isolated places. After this, the city will be on ‘green’ alert, expecting moderate rains.
Likewise, Palghar and Thane are also on a ‘yellow’ alert for Wednesday, after which the rain will intensify to ‘orange’ alert. Meanwhile, Raigad and Ratnagiri have been placed on an ‘orange’ alert for Wednesday and Thursday.
IMD officials said the depression over Bay of Bengal has intensified into a deep depression off the Bangladesh coast.
“The depression over the Bay of Bengal has formed into a deep depression, strengthening with it the westerly winds from the Arabian Sea,” Anupam Kashyapi, head of the weather forecasting department at IMD, said. “This will result in a partial increase in wind speed and rainfall activity over Konkan and adjoining ghats of Madhya Maharashtra over the next three days. Marathwada and Vidarbha will not see much impact,” he added.
The city received paltry rain in the 24 hours till 8:30am on Tuesday with Colaba recording a rainfall of 1.8mm and Santacruz 2.6mm. Between 8.30am and 5.30pm, Colaba recorded 1.2mm rain and Santacruz 0.4mm. The maximum temperature was an average 30.3 degrees Celsius and minimum was around 25.7 degrees Celsius.
Moreover, the city on July 31 met its quota of monsoon rains at least two months before the end of the season. Since June 1, the total rainfall received at Santacruz, the IMD’s base weather station, was 2318.9mm. The seasonal normal for the city is 2318.8mm. The last month also marked Mumbai’s wettest July ever, with 1,769mm rainfall received, against the normal of 855.7mm.
