Heaviest one-day July rainfall in four years cripples Mumbai, next few days could be as bad

On Tuesday, torrential rains for the third consecutive day in Mumbai disrupted life in the city. The weather bureau on Tuesday afternoon issued a forecast for heavy to very heavy rain with isolated extremely heavy spells for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar till Wednesday.

Just how bad have the Mumbai rains been this year?

Since Sunday, Mumbai has recorded rainfall in excess of 100mm every day.

Between 8.30am on Monday and 8.30am on Tuesday, Santacruz recorded 184.3mm rain, the highest on a July day since 2015.

And heavy overnight rain Monday meant that by Tuesday, Mumbai received 65% of the average rain it receives each year.

On Tuesday, torrential rains for the third consecutive day in Mumbai disrupted life in the city. Over a span of nine hours on Tuesday (between 8.30am and 5.30pm), the Santacruz weather station, representative of suburbs and Mumbai, recorded 106.2mm, while Colaba, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 39mm.

Last year, the highest rain on a July day in Mumbai was 163.4mm.

Interestingly, the rainfall between 8.30am on Monday and 8.30am on Tuesday is only the second highest this year in a 24-hour period. Between 8.30am on June 24 and 8.30am on June 25, the city recorded 231.4mm rain.

The weather bureau on Tuesday afternoon issued a forecast for heavy to very heavy rain with isolated extremely heavy spells for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar till Wednesday afternoon and thereafter, heavy to very rain in few areas of the city and suburbs for Thursday and Friday.

Next week promises to be as bad.

“The upper air cyclonic circulation (weather systems) 3.6km above mean sea level over south Gujarat has further intensified, and similar weather systems over south Odisha and Chhattisgarh are all allowing westerly winds to carry excess moisture over the Konkan coast, including Mumbai, allowing heavy rains to persist,” said Ajay Kumar, scientist, India Meteorological Department. “Intermittent heavy to very heavy rain will continue for next 48 hours from Tuesday.”

Meanwhile, continuous rain led to a further drop in day and night temperatures in Mumbai. While the day temperature in Santacruz was 26.7 degrees Celsius, 3.6 degree Celsius below normal, the night temperature was 22.4 degrees Celsius, 3 degrees Celsius below normal and one of the lowest for the decade.