Mumbai receives half its June average rain in first 15 days, heavy rainfall in suburbs

A day after monsoon onset was declared over the city, isolated areas in the suburbs recorded moderate to heavy showers on Monday allowing the city to achieve 50%

A day after monsoon onset was declared over the city, isolated areas in the suburbs recorded moderate to heavy showers on Monday allowing the city to achieve 50% of its average rainfall for the month of June.

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The weather bureau on Monday afternoon revised its orange alert for the city (heavy to very heavy rain) to a yellow alert (moderate to heavy rain) and has issued an orange alert for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Over the next 48 hours, the city and suburbs can expect cloudy conditions with heavy to very heavy rain, the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) said.

From June 1 to June 15, 5.30pm, Santacruz weather observatory recorded 245.5mm rain against the monthly average of 493.1mm.

During the same time, the Colaba weather station, recorded 262.8mm. Location-wise rainfall was over 72 mm rain in parts of Andheri and Vile-Parle over six hours (2.30 pm to 6.30pm).

South Mumbai received moderate showers between Sunday night and Monday morning as well as moderate rain through the day on Monday. Between 8.30am and 8.30pm Monday, Santacruz recorded 37mm rain, falling under the ‘rather heavy’ category while Colaba recorded 11.2mm ‘moderate’ rain.

“Mumbai did not receive much of its expected rains after onset so far since it was a soft onset. However, momentum is very likely to pick up over the next 48 hours,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general, western region, IMD.

Independent meteorologists said weather systems were strengthening in the Arabian Sea and along with the monsoon current heavy rains were slated to occur between Tuesday to Thursday (approximately 200mm over three days) leading to the possibility of water-logging in some areas.

Meanwhile, the maximum temperature in the suburbs was 33.7 degrees Celsius on Monday, almost 2 degree Celsius above normal while the minimum was 27 degrees Celsius, a degree Celsius above normal. South Mumbai recorded 32.4 degrees Celsius, 0.9 degree Celsius above normal while 25.5 degrees Celsius was the minimum temperature, close to the normal mark. Humidity levels were 94% in the suburbs and 90% in south Mumbai.

State receives excess rainfall in the first two weeks of June

Maharashtra recorded 89% excess rain in the first two weeks of June (123.5mm against the normal of 65.3 mm for the period). Only three districts - Sangli, Akola and Yavatmal - recorded ‘normal’ rainfall while all remaining sub-divisions have recorded either excess or large excess rain. Central Maharashtra recorded 114% excess rain with maximum rain recorded at Jalgaon, Dhule, Nashik followed by Marathwada at 98% excess with Aurangabad, Latur, Beed recording highest rain while Vidabrha recorded 68% excess rain with Washim, Chandrapur and Buldhana recording heaviest rain spells over two weeks. Along the Konkan coast, Thane has witnessed 109% excess rain with 234.8 mm against the normal 112.6 mm for 14 days.

Waterlogging at Andheri

On Monday afternoon between 3-4 pm Andheri in western suburbs reported around 60mm of rainfall, according to BMC measuring station. Due to this, there was waterlogging in Andheri subway, hence, traffic movement had to be suspended for a while, BMC said. In the rest of the city, no waterlogging incident was reported.

(Inputs from Mehul Thakker)