Monsoon likely to arrive in Mumbai today, says IMD

The weather bureau on Saturday said the southwest monsoon’s onset over Mumbai is expected on Sunday, while changing its ‘heavy to very heavy rain’ warning for the

The weather bureau on Saturday said the southwest monsoon’s onset over Mumbai is expected on Sunday, while changing its ‘heavy to very heavy rain’ warning for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) for the coming days. The normal monsoon onset date for Mumbai is June 11.

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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday issued an orange alert (be prepared) for heavy to very heavy rain on Monday and Tuesday and a yellow alert (be updated) for heavy rain across isolated areas for Sunday.

Earlier on Tuesday, IMD had issued a yellow alert for the entire week and an orange alert for Sunday.

However, so far, Mumbai and the surrounding areas have only witnessed traces of rain.

Meanwhile, the northern limit of the southwest monsoon further etched into more areas of the state, covering entire south-central Maharashtra, parts of Vidarbha and Marathwada.

The onset line passed through Harnai in Ratnagiri district, Ahmednagar district, almost entire Marathwada as well as Nagpur and Gondia in Vidarbha subdivision.

“Conditions are favourable for the southwest monsoon covering Mumbai and the rest of the state by Sunday,” said Shubhangi Bhute, director, IMD Mumbai. “Heavy rain warnings have been issued for south Konkan, central Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha for the weekend. As monsoon advances over rest of the state, active monsoon conditions with heavy rain are expected for north Konkan districts, including Mumbai from Sunday onwards.”

An independent meteorologist questioned the criteria being followed by IMD for onset declaration. “While monsoon has reached Nagpur as per IMD, it has not been declared for Mumbai yet. Both areas have nearly the same unfavourable wind pattern, but Nagpur got pre-monsoon thunder showers, which IMD used for declaring the arrival,” said Akshay Deoras, meteorologist and PhD researcher at the department of meteorology, University of Reading, the United Kingdom.

Between Friday 8.30am and Saturday 8.30am, the city and suburbs received 1.5mm and 2.1 mm rain. However, heavy to very heavy rain with isolated areas receiving extremely heavy rain was recorded across south Konkan districts of Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Raigad. Vaibhavwadi, Sawantwadi, Malvan and Devgad in Sindhudurg recorded 230mm, 210mm, 190mm and 170mm. Several areas in Ratnagiri and Raigad also recorded 100-150mm rain over the past 24 hours. In central Maharashtra, maximum rain was recorded in Kolhapur district with 170mm rain in Gaganbawada. Rain in Marathwada and Vidarbha ranged between 10mm- 50mm between Friday and Saturday.

The city and suburbs witnessed drizzling on Saturday evening with both Santacruz and Colaba recording traces of rainfall. Light showers reported from Borivli, Kandivli, Dahisar, Goregaon, and other parts of the northwestern suburbs. Several areas in the MMR, such as Dombivli, Badalpur, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane and Panvel recorded light to moderate showers. Heavy rain was recorded from the evening onwards at Nashik, said IMD officials. Between Saturday night and through the day on Sunday, the city and suburbs can expect light to moderate showers with the possibility of heavy rain and thundershowers at isolated places, the weather bureau said.