Rain takes Mumbai by surprise, expect cloudy skies today

The city on Thursday witnessed unseasonal rain, which the weather bureau said was owing to the “influence of active weather systems in the Arabian Sea”. The suburbs

The city on Thursday witnessed unseasonal rain, which the weather bureau said was owing to the “influence of active weather systems in the Arabian Sea”. The suburbs and island city recorded 1.2mm rain between 5.30am and 8.30am, with cloudy conditions continuing throughout the day.

HT Image

The last time Mumbai recorded rain in December was when Cyclone Ockhi went past the city on December 5 and 6, 2017, when 53.8mm rain was recorded in the suburbs and 82.2mm in south Mumbai. It was also the all-time highest December rain for Mumbai. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which said that cloudy conditions will continue in the city on Friday, announced that a deep depression in southwest Arabian Sea had developed into tropical Cyclone Pawan, the fifth cyclone in Arabian Sea this year and the eighth in the north Indian Ocean in 2019.

“The tropical Cyclone Pawan and a weather depression [that weakened into a low pressure area] over east central Arabian Sea moved west-north westwards [about 700km west-southwest of Mumbai], led to active rainfall conditions for the west coast. Light drizzle was witnessed in Mumbai on early Thursday morning. Rain is not expected on Friday. But cloudy conditions will continue,” said SG Kamble, scientist, IMD.

The cyclone will have no impact over the Indian coast and move steadily towards the Somalia coast and is expected to weaken by Friday, said Kamble.

Private weather forecasting agency Skymet, too, said there will be no rain on Friday, but only cloudy conditions. “The deep depression has begun weakening. Under its influence, Mumbai will see a drop in temperatures, but no rain is expected,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president (meteorology and climate change), Skymet.

Owing to the cloudy conditions, temperatures in Mumbai dropped by 3 degrees Celsius between Wednesday and Thursday, with the suburbs recording a day temperature of 32.3 degrees Celsius and south Mumbai recording 31.5 degrees Celsius.