Heavy rains to continue across Mumbai; Colaba records highest 24-hour rainfall this season

Temperatures drop to five-year low, as Mumbai and surrounding regions witness incessant rainfall.

The city woke up to non-stop rain for the second consecutive day, with both south Mumbai and the suburbs recording heavy showers.

Water-logging on the Western Express Highway at Jogeshwari on Monday morning.(Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

The minimum temperature recorded at 8.30am on Monday was the lowest in five years at 22.2 degrees Celsius, almost 5 degrees below normal. In July 2013, Mumbai had recorded 22 degrees Celsius, the lowest night temperature in July for the decade.

The weather station at Colaba, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 170.6mm (very heavy) rainfall between 8.30am Sunday and 8.30am Monday, which is the highest 24-hour rainfall for this season in the region. Santacruz, representative of the suburbs, recorded 122 mm rain (very heavy) during the same period.

Between 8.30am and 2.30pm on Monday, south Mumbai recorded 78.6mm of rainfall, while the suburbs recorded 68.1mm.

The weather bureau on Saturday has predicted heavy to very heavy rain till Wednesday. (Image courtesy: IMD)

As per the weather department’s classification, 15.6mm to 64.4mm of rainfall is considered ‘moderate’, 64.5mm to 115.5mm is ‘heavy’, 115.6mm to 204.4mm is ‘very heavy’ and more than 204.5mm is ‘extreme’.

The weather bureau on Saturday has predicted heavy to very heavy rain till Wednesday. After moderate to heavy showers over the weekend, warnings were escalated on Sunday for extremely heavy rain in isolated areas through the week. On Sunday, most parts of the city recorded continuous spells of heavy to very heavy rain, the weather bureau said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast on Monday morning read: “Continuous rain with heavy to very heavy rain at a few places and extremely heavy rain at one or two places in the city and suburbs for the rest of Monday as well as Tuesday.”

“An upper air anti-cyclonic circulation (weather system) over the Arabian Sea, a similar weather system over the Bay of Bengal, and an offshore trough are allowing the monsoon current to be active over the north Konkan coast, including Mumbai. We expect heavy to very heavy rain, with isolated, extremely heavy spells over Mumbai and the surrounding areas till Wednesday, after which rainfall is expected to reduce slowly,” said Ajay Kumar, scientist, IMD, Mumbai. “This warning has been conveyed to the BEST, the BMC, railways and the state government.”