Mumbai’s September rain breaches 1,000-mm mark

Moderate showers on Friday pushed the amount of rainfall received by the city in September above the 1,000-mm mark. From September 1 to Friday 8.30pm, Mumbai recorded

Moderate showers on Friday pushed the amount of rainfall received by the city in September above the 1,000-mm mark. From September 1 to Friday 8.30pm, Mumbai recorded 1,043.2 mm rain, the highest ever monthly rain for the city since the India Meteorological Department (IMD) began collating records 1901.

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Between 8.30am and 8.30pm on Friday, Mumbai suburbs recorded 60.4mm rain while south Mumbai recorded 49mm rainfall, both falling under the ‘moderate’ category.

The weather bureau downgraded its rainfall warning for Saturday from an ‘orange alert’ to a ‘yellow alert’, with the possibility of heavy rain across isolated areas. The city and suburbs can expect intermittent rain with possibility of heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places on Saturday and light to moderate showers on Sunday.

“The weather systems responsible for intense rain are gradually reducing. However, an east-west shear zone over the central parts of the country and a low-pressure area over north Maharashtra coast keep monsoon conditions active. This system is likely to intensify into a depression and move further westwards into the sea,” said an IMD official.

Between 8.30am on Thursday and 8.30am on Friday, the Colaba weather observatory recorded 81mm (heavy) rain and Santacruz recorded only 3.5mm (95% lesser rain). While 15.6mm to 64.4mm of rain is considered moderate, 64.5mm to 115.5mm rain is heavy.

Independent meteorologists said the southwest monsoon withdrawal for Mumbai is expected by the second week of October.

“September has been super active and record-breaking for Mumbai. Interestingly, rainfall activity has managed to be well-distributed in time this month unlike the previous months,” said Akshay Deoras, independent meteorologist and PhD researcher, University of Reading, UK.