Heavy rain lashed Thane on Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Deepak Joshi)The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday issued a yellow alert with forecast of heavy rain at isolated places in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar for the next two days. Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts have been put on orange alert with forecast of heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places till Monday.
Light showers with isolated intense spells were recorded across Mumbai and suburbs through the day on Thursday. While IMD’s Santacruz observatory recorded 5.6 mm rain in nine hours (8.30 am to 5.30 pm), the Colaba station recorded 2.2 mm of rain.
Several parts of western and central India are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall during the next four to five days, the IMD said. This included Gujarat, Goa, Konkan and the ghat areas of central Maharashtra.
According to the 24-hour forecast, there is a possibility of moderate to heavy rain and gusty winds reaching 45 to 55 kmph occasionally, in Mumbai and suburbs.
In 24 hours that ended at 8.30 am on Thursday, the suburbs recorded 42 mm of rain while the figure for south Mumbai was 17.7 mm. The IMD classifies 15.6 mm to 64.4 mm of rainfall as moderate, and 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm as heavy.
Heavy rain was recorded in the catchment area of the seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai, in 24 hours, ending at 6 am on Thursday. Following heavy rain in the catchment area since first week of August, the water stock has reached 60.17 per cent of the total capacity.
Bhatsa lake, the major supplier of water to Mumbai, is at 60.75 per cent (4,35,583 million litres) of its capacity. It also supplies water to neighbouring cities of Thane and Bhiwandi. In 24 hours ending at 6 am on Sunday, the lake had received 75 mm of rain.
Besides Bhatsa, Mumbai draws water from Middle Vaitarna, Upper Vaitarna, Tansa and Modak Sagar lakes, which are in Thane and Nashik districts. Upper Vaitarna received 148 mm of rain, followed by Middle Vaitarna (96 mm) and Modak Sagar (95 mm) in 24 hours ending at 6 am. Tulsi and Vihar lakes, located in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, also received heavy rain.