As cyclone Nisarga is expected to hit Mumbai, Thane and other parts of Maharashtra tomorrow, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has placed 10 teams on standby, while the Mumbai Police have started relocating the homeless to temporary shelters.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has kept its disaster management control room and all necessary departments on high alert. All 24 ward offices have been ordered to relocate people living in flood-prone areas to nearby schools.
Mumbai likely to receive heavy rain
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday scaled up its weather warning, issuing a red alert for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad for Wednesday. There is a red alert for Palghar on Thursday as well.
On Sunday, a low pressure area formed over south-east and adjoining east-central Arabian Sea in the early morning and remained till forenoon.
Disaster response teams from neighbouring states on alert
Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a video conference with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray regarding cyclone Nisarga. Mr/ Shah clarified that disaster response teams from neighbouring states have been kept on alert and will be sent to Maharashtra if needed.
Gujarat braces for cyclone
In anticipation of a cyclonic storm making landfall on the Gujarat coast on June 3, the Gujarat government on Monday ordered evacuation of people living in low-lying areas and deployed 10 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in over half a dozen districts.
“The (low-pressure) system is around 900km away from Surat at present. We expect the cyclonic storm to hit the southern Gujarat coast near Daman on June 3 evening with a wind speed of 90 to 100 km per hour. It will bring heavy rainfall in the south Gujarat region on June 3 and 4. It may have some impact in Bhavnagar and Amreli districts of the Saurashtra region as well,” said Director of MET Centre, Jayanta Sarkar.
Normal weather after June 4
Commenting on the situation after June 4, Akshay Deoras, a Ph.D scholar at University of Reading, U.K., who follows India and especially Maharashtra’s weather, tweeted, “From 4 June, normal #weather conditions (mostly clear sky & humid weather) will make a comeback in #Mumbai. This period will witness at the most a few odd passing pre-#monsoon showers. It will be surprising if the #monsoon's arrival in #Mumbai is announced before ~15 June. The Arabian Sea low-pressure system will lead to a transient rainfall phase, but surface/near-surface wind pattern won’t be westerly so as to declare the monsoon’s arrival. I’d like to cite the case of Cyclone Vayu which didn’t allow the onset of westerly surface/near-surface #monsoon winds over #Mumbai for a long period around mid June 2019. Due to the same reason, @Indiametdept had waited for many days for announcing the monsoon’s arrival.”