Mumbai: City to receive moderate rainfall in next 24 hrs

After rains lashed the city last week, it seems like the weather gods have taken a break and given residents some breather.

While weather enthusiasts have predicted relatively dry weather for the next few days, officials from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) have forecasted light to moderate rainfall, along with thundershowers, in the next 24 to 48 hours.

The southwest monsoon winds had covered nearly 80% of the geographical area of the country in the first fortnight of June, the IMD stated. Calling it a rare milestone, Skymet weather, a private weather agency, said, “Its further progress is quite likely in the next two to three days. The areas left out will mostly fall in Gujarat and Rajasthan at the end of this week. A fresh weather system from the Bay of Bengal or a combination of western disturbance with the monsoon trough will suffice to take the monsoon to the last post, well ahead of schedule.”

Skymet said, “The western winds are relatively sluggish and are stuck over Diu and south coast of Gujarat. Still, it has reached ahead of schedule as the normal date over south Gujarat is June 15 and it covers Saurashtra and north Gujarat by June 25. The monsoon is expected to advance further to cover some more parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, west Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi in the next two to three days.”

Meanwhile, in the first 14 days of June, Santacruz observatory (that represents Mumbai suburbs) has recorded 719.3 mm of rainfall as against the monthly normal rainfall of 505 mm for June.

At the Colaba observatory (that represents south Mumbai), 377 mm of rainfall has been recorded during the same period, as against the average monthly rainfall of 540.9 mm for the month.

While there has been minimal rainfall in north Konkan region, including Mumbai and Thane, starting this week, south Konkan and Goa are heading for extremely heavy rain over the next three to four days. Based on the satellite image on Monday evening, IMD has predicted that south Konkan, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala may receive heavy rainfall.