IMD sounds ‘extremely heavy rainfall’ alert for Pune city

The IMD officials have appealed to the people of the city to stay at home and take necessary precautions, and step out only if necessary

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast ‘extremely heavy rainfall’ in the city and neighbouring areas, including the ghats, in the next 24 hours. “Extremely heavy rainfall activity to occur at isolated places and ghat sections of Pune on July 13 to 14. Chances of heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in Pune on July 15,” reads the IMD statement. “City witnessing heavy rainfall due to strong westerly winds and an offshore trough between the southern coast of Gujarat and the northern coast of Konkan,” the statement further reads.

Commuters faced inconvenience due to the large amount of water in the subway near the railway station at Akurdi in Pune. (HT PHOTO)

The IMD officials have appealed to the people of the city to stay at home and take necessary precautions, and step out only if necessary.

On Wednesday, the city witnessed continuous moderate rainfall as well as heavy rainfall in isolated places due to strong winds and the formation of a trough. Earlier on Wednesday morning, amid heavy rain in the region since the past few days, IMD issued a ‘nowcast’ warning for Pune and other parts of western Maharashtra, including Satara, Solapur, Sangli and Kolhapur districts. The IMD predicted moderate to intense rainfall at isolated places in the subsequent three to four hours till afternoon.

Anupam Kashyapi, head of the weather forecasting division at IMD, said, “Packed isobars still persisting over the Arabian sea. Strong westerlies result in enhanced pressure gradient force, causing huge wind convergence over Konkan-Goa and in the ghat sections of madhya Maharashtra.” However, Kashyapi predicted that the intensity of rain will reduce drastically after July 15. A red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rain of over 20 cm in 24 hours, an orange alert indicates very heavy rain between 6 and 20 cm, while a yellow alert indicates heavy rainfall between 6 and 11 cm.

On Wednesday, the minimum temperature recorded at Shivajinagar was 20.2 degree Celsius while the maximum temperature was 23.1 degree Celsius and relative humidity was 93%. Shivajinagar received 46.4 mm rainfall till 6 pm on Wednesday. According to the fire department, 18 incidents of tree fall were reported in Pune city on Wednesday and one person was found dead in river water at Shivane.

The collective water storage of the Khadakwasla, Temghar, Warasgaon and Panshet dams - that supply water to Pune city - reached over 12 TMC (thousand million cubic feet), which is 42% of the total collective capacity of the four reservoirs, a district administration official said. Water discharge from the Khadakwasla dam, which is filled to its capacity, was reduced from 10,000 cubic feet per second (cusec) to around 5,000 cubic feet per second in the morning on Wednesday as the rain somewhat relented in the western ghats.