Mumbai gets lights showers; government issues weather alert from Wednesday-Saturday

The city, suburbs and parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) received light showers on Tuesday evening.

The city, suburbs and parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) received light showers on Tuesday evening.

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The Maharashtra government issued a statewide weather alert between Wednesday and Saturday based on India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) yellow alert for the state.

The alert was issued by the disaster management department to all district collectors, highlighting the possibility of torrential rains with thunder, particularly for coastal districts (south Konkan).

The Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs, recorded 2.2mm of rain between 8.30am and 8.30pm on Tuesday while the Colaba observatory, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 1.2mm of rain in the same period.

Around 4-6mm of rain was recorded across Thane, Navi Mumbai, Mira Bhayander, Panvel, Kalyan and Dombivli.

IMD has issued an alert for heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in Mumbai on Thursday and Friday. Thane and Palghar could expect heavy rain across isolated areas on Thursday. Light to moderate rain is expected for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a forecast for extremely-heavy rain has been predicted for Raigad for Thursday.

According to IMD, the deep depression over north-coastal Andhra Pradesh moved further west-northwestward and weakened into a depression over Telangana on Tuesday. “It is very likely to move west-northwestward and weaken into a well-marked low-pressure area by early Wednesday morning, which is likely to allow rain enhancement over Maharashtra,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general, western region, IMD.

Meanwhile, a sharp spike in pollution levels was witnessed on Tuesday. The air quality index (AQI) shot up from Monday’s 87 (satisfactory) to 121 (moderate) on Tuesday for PM2.5 pollutant, according to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). AQI between 51 and 100 is ‘satisfactory’, and 101-200 is moderate. Researchers said a rise in humidity had allowed pollutant levels to increase on Tuesday. An AQI of 115 (moderate) has been predicted for Wednesday.