Monsoon arrives in Mumbai a day early, heavy rainfall to lash city

Mumbai received heavy rainfall today following the onset of the southwest monsoon, leading to a slight delay in the running of suburban trains

The southwest monsoon arrived in Mumbai, Thane and other parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) on Saturday morning, a day earlier than normal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) declared the onset of the monsoon over Mumbai, the adjoining Thane-Konkan areas, Ahmednagar, Parbhani and other parts of Maharashtra. (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

The IMD had forecast extremely heavy rainfall over the weekend on Friday after the monsoon made landfall over southern Konkan.

“The northern line of the southwest monsoon currently passes over Mumbai and is expected to cover parts of interior Maharashtra by the end of the day. We expect heavy to very heavy rain in most parts of the city and isolated extremely heavy rain in some areas,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

“From Sunday onwards, the intensity of rainfall is likely to reduce,” he added.

Last year, the monsoon onset was delayed by almost 10 days and then year before that by four days.

Hosalikar added that a trough (weather system) extending from the Konkan coast to Kerala, a weather system over west central Maharashtra, and the monsoon current, were all responsible for moderate to heavy rainfall over Mumbai.

Between 10:30pm Friday night and 8:30am Saturday, south Mumbai recorded 38.2mm, and the suburbs 37mm. However, location wise rainfall data indicated the intensity was highest at Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road followed by Powai in the suburbs.

As per the weather department’s classification, 15.6mm to 64.4mm of rain 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’.