Drop in rain intensity as Mumbai passes 1,000-mm mark for season

Even as the city and suburbs witnessed a drop in rain intensity on Wednesday with intermittent sunshine after a week, both south Mumbai and the suburbs surpassed

Even as the city and suburbs witnessed a drop in rain intensity on Wednesday with intermittent sunshine after a week, both south Mumbai and the suburbs surpassed the 1,000mm mark for the season.

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From June 1 to July 8 (8.30pm), the Colaba weather station, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 1,005.2mm. In June, the weather observatory had recorded 524.5mm rain which was 97% of its monthly rainfall. In July so far, south Mumbai has received 480.7mm of 711.6mm of rain or 67% of its monthly average in the first eight days.

Though monsoon onset was declared on June 14, India Meteorological Department considers seasonal rainfall from June 1, including pre-monsoon showers. This means Mumbai surpassed the 1,000mm mark in just over five weeks. Last year, Mumbai crossed 1,000mm on July 3 itself after 375.2mm rain was recorded in 24 hours.

The Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, recorded 1002.9mm rain from June 1 to July 8 (8.30pm). The suburbs had received its lowest June rain in five years at 395mm against the monthly average of 505mm or 78%. However, in July, the weather station has already received 72% of its average rain with 607.4mm rain against 840.7mm mean rain for the month in eight days.

With intense rain activity between July 3 and 7, the suburbs and island city have recorded 30% and 28% excess rain for the period June 1 to July 8. Other than Mumbai, Thane (1,149mm), Ratnagiri (1,339mm), and Sindhudurg (1,634mm) have all recorded over 1,000 mm rain along the Konkan coast.

On Wednesday, sporadic spells of light to moderate showers were witnessed both in the city and suburbs with pockets of sunshine during early morning and afternoon. Between 8.30am and 8.30pm Wednesday, the suburbs recorded 17.4mm rain while 5.8mm was recorded in south Mumbai.

Meanwhile, after a drop in rain intensity on Wednesday, the IMD downgraded its forecast and removed rain warnings for the coming days for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar. On Tuesday, IMD had issued a yellow alert for all three zones from Thursday to Saturday. However, heavy rain warnings persist for south Konkan districts.

“With few spells of intense rain, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region on Wednesday observed moderate rain over 12 hours. This trend is expected to continue on Thursday,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general, western region, IMD.

“After the active spell over Maharashtra, the well-marked low pressure moved further north towards the Gulf of Kutch and surrounding areas, marginally reducing the intensity of active monsoon conditions for the north Konkan coast. However, the offshore trough extending from Gujarat to north Kerala will lead to heavy to very heavy rain for south Konkan districts,” Hosalikar said.

With a drop in rain activity, the day temperature in the suburbs on Wednesday increased 1.5 degrees Celsius above normal to 32.1 degrees Celsius while south Mumbai recorded 30.8 degrees Celsius, 0.4 degree Celsius above normal. The minimum temperature was close to the normal mark. Humidity was 92% in south Mumbai and 88% in the suburbs.

The city and suburbs can expect cloudy conditions with the possibility of intermittent moderate showers on Thursday and Friday, predicted IMD.