Mumbai receives light showers, Maharashtra govt issues state-wide weather alert

Forecast for extremely heavy rain has been predicted for Raigad for Thursday.

The city, suburbs and parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) received light showers on Tuesday evening. The Maharashtra government has issued a state-wide 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 of the state to all district collectors highlighting the possibility of torrential rains with thunder, particularly for coastal districts (south Konkan).

File photo: People deal with rain at Gateway of India at Colaba in Mumbai. (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

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

Location-wise rain showed between 4-6 mm rain across Thane, Navi Mumbai, Mira Bhayander, Panvel, Kalyan and Dombivli.

The IMD has issued a - heavy-to-very heavy rain at isolated places - warning for 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 for Wednesday. Meanwhile, a forecast for extremely heavy rain has been predicted for Raigad for Thursday.

According to the IMD, the deep depression over north coastal Andhra Pradesh moved further west-northwestwards and weakened into a depression over Telangana on Tuesday. “It is very likely to move west-northwestwards 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 level 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). An AQI between 51 and 100 is ‘satisfactory’ and 101-200 is considered moderate. Researchers said rise in humidity allowed pollutant levels to increase on Tuesday. An AQI of 115 (moderate) has been predicted for Wednesday.