MUMBAI: The rain gods’ mood on Friday was out of sync with the IMD prediction of heavy rainfall in the city. Virtually dry, the city and its neighbourhood saw only some scattered pre-monsoon precipitation early in the day.
As for Saturday, weathermen did not budge from their warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at one or two places. The
India Meteorological Department (IMD) also declared the onset of the southwest monsoon over the southern parts of the state.
The monsoon is expected to reach the city, Thane and parts of North Konkan over the next 24 hours, said K S Hosalikar of the IMD at a disaster management review meeting in Thane on Friday. The normal arrival date of the monsoon in the city is June 10, which is Sunday.
The lack of rain on Friday, a surprise after a few days of pre-monsoon rain that caused waterlogging and affected traffic, caused the maximum temperature to rise. The Colaba observatory of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded a maximum of 33.1 degrees Celsius and the Santacruz observatory, 33.8 degrees Celsius.
Just a day ago, on Thursday, owing to the rain the maximum had dropped to around 29 degrees Celsius.
Humidity remained high with Colaba recording a relative humidity of 91% and Santacruz 85% on Friday morning. By evening, though, the relative humidity had dropped to 76% at the Colaba observatory and 69% at the Santacruz observatory.
An IMD official attributed the high humidity to the extremely strong winds that flow in whenever the onset of the monsoon is about to take place. These winds are able to carry a lot of moisture, raising the humidity level. “When high humidity is coupled with rising temperature, like on Friday, the discomfort index goes up,” said a official.
The monsoon has touched the extreme southern parts of the state, like Ratnagiri,
Solapur and Nanded, said weather officials.
“Conditions are favourable for the onset to be declared further over Maharashtra, including Mumbai, in the next 24 hours,” Ajay Kumar, scientist from IMD Mumbai, said. “Rain over the city could increase from Saturday.”
An independent meteorologist, Akshaye Deoras, struck a different note, saying the cloud mass that was expected to give the city significant rain was still far away in the
Arabian Sea. “The onset of monsoon over Mumbai may all depend on how this moves. On Saturday as well it would have to be seen how much rain the city could witness. It’s unlikely to be extremely heavy,” he said.
(Inputs from Manoj Badgeri)
