Brace for heavy showers in Mumbai today; Doppler radar remains defunct

For Saturday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a ‘yellow alert’ (be updated) for Mumbai and an ‘orange alert’ (district authorities to be prepared) for Thane and Palghar.

After two days of heavy rain, the city witnessed varying rainfall patterns between Thursday and Friday. On Friday, between 8.30am to 8.30pm, Colaba recorded 1.4mm rain and Santacruz, representative of the suburbs recorded 17.1mm rain.

After two days of heavy rain, the city witnessed varying rainfall patterns between Thursday and Friday. On Friday, between 8.30am to 8.30pm, Colaba recorded 1.4mm rain and Santacruz, representative of the suburbs recorded 17.1mm rain. (HT PHOTO)

For Saturday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a ‘yellow alert’ (be updated) for Mumbai and an ‘orange alert’ (district authorities to be prepared) for Thane and Palghar. Meanwhile, IMD’s Doppler radar remained dysfunctional for the second consecutive day on Friday. “The technical glitch is being addressed by our engineering team,” an IMD official said.

The radar located at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Colaba can carry out weather surveillance at a distance of 300 km radius from its location. The radar provides long-range weather surveillance, detection and forecast for rainfall, cloud formation, thunderstorms and other weather conditions such as tropical storms.

This is the second time the radar has stopped working this monsoon after a similar instance on July 10. Over the past 24 hours (between 8.30am Thursday and 8.30am Friday), the Colaba weather observatory recorded 71.8mm (heavy) rain, of which 40mm was recorded overnight. During the same time the suburbs recorded 45.1mm (moderate), of which 18mm was recorded overnight.

On Friday however rain intensity was much lesser with intermittent light to moderate showers in different parts of the city and suburbs.

IMD said intermittent spells of heavy rain across isolated areas was expected on Saturday and a few spells of rain on Sunday. “Weather systems responsible for intense rain and active monsoon conditions have begun fading. However, the offshore trough along the west coast and an east-west shear zone are present, which will keep monsoon conditions active,” said an IMD official.