After sunny Sunday, IMD revises rain forecast for Mumbai rain

Although the city experienced very heavy rain on Saturday, there were hardly any showers on Sunday. This was in contradiction to the weather bureau’s prediction. The bureau had predicted very heavy rain till Monday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) revised its forecast on Sunday evening to the possibility of a few spells of rain or thundershowers over Mumbai and surrounding areas from Sunday to Tuesday.

On Sunday, south Mumbai recorded 0.8mm rain while 0.5mm rain was recorded in the suburbs. The city woke up to bright and sunny conditions but a partly cloudy sky was visible by the evening. However, between 8.30am on Saturday and 8.30 am on Sunday, south Mumbai recorded 164mm rain while the suburbs recorded 100.1mm rain.

“With the southwest monsoon line passing over Mumbai, chances of light to moderate rainfall cannot be ruled out. However, we have revised our warning as the weather systems have either weakened or no longer exist. The warning still persists for Raigad and south Konkan region till Monday,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD.

Owing to lack of rain on Sunday, the day temperature moved closer to the normal mark (33 degree Celsius) as against 28 degrees Celsius on Saturday – five degree Celsius below normal.

“Rather than following weather models blindly, there is a need to track and understand the accuracy of past weather situations before issuing a forecast,” said Akshay Deoras, meteorologist and independent meteorological advisor to the Maharashtra government. HT on March 24 reported that out of IMD Mumbai’s 32 rainfall warnings in 2017, 14 turned out to be incorrect (44% error) , a right-to-information (RTI) response from the weather bureau had revealed.