The weather bureau has issued a ‘yellow alert’ in Mumbai and Thane. (Amit Chakravarty)HIGH-SPEED WINDS accompanied by heavy rain and thundershowers were recorded in Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan on Friday. The weather bureau has issued a ‘yellow alert’ in Mumbai and Thane for the weekend and predicted heavy rain at isolated areas. Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, too, have been put on ‘orange alert’ with chances of heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places on Saturday.
On Friday evening, lightning accompanied by an intense spell of rain was recorded in Thane and Kalyan. “Radar is indicating very intense and spread-out development with cloud height reaching more than 10-12 km,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general, IMD, western region.
After minimal rain activity over the first 10 days in September, monsoon revival is expected from Saturday onwards, IMD officials said.
Santacruz and Colaba observatories have so far recorded 43.3 mm and 56.4 mm rain respectively over the first 11 days of September.
IMD’s weekly forecast, released Friday, said the withdrawal process was unlikely to begin as the westerly winds continued to be strong. Two low-pressure areas were likely to develop over the next two weeks, it said. The first is likely to develop near northern Andhra Pradesh (AP) coast around September 13, which will move along Telangana, Vidarbha, and other parts of Maharashtra bringing in heavy rainfall. A second low-pressure area is likely to develop over the west-central Bay of Bengal around September 17 and bring another spell of heavy rainfall.