Heavy rain lashes Mumbai, no warning from Met dept

In six hours ending 2 pm on Tuesday, almost every part in the city and suburbs witnessed over 40 mm of rain. The rain recorded in nine hours ending at 5.30 pm on Tuesday was 46.4 mm.

Later in the day, the IMD forecast heavy rain to continue throughout Tuesday, with a gradual decrease in the intensity from Wednesday.

With two back-to-back weather systems forming in the Bay of Bengal that has moved westwards, Mumbai has recorded rainy days everyday this month so far. As per IMD, a rainy day is described as when above 2.5 mm of rainfall is recorded.

K S Hosalikar, IMD scientist, in a tweet pointed out that the intense rain spell and cloudy sky on Tuesday were the effects of a weather system over west Madhya Pradesh, which strengthened the westerly winds at lower levels over north Konkan side.

With above average rainfall in July and August (till now), the seasonal rainfall this year – from June 1 to September 30 – crossed the 2000 mm mark on Tuesday. It was recorded at 2001.5 mm till Tuesday. With another one-and-a-half months left for the season, the seasonal rainfall is likely to be above average this year. Normal seasonal rainfall for Mumbai is 2318.8 mm.

As per IMD’s district forecast and warning, the intensity of rain is expected to reduce in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar as a green alert is in place till August 20. A green alert indicates likelihood of light to moderate rain. Across the state, in the last 24 hours, Gondia, Bhandara and Gadhchiroli were affected by heavy rainfall. As many as 1,531 people were evacuated from flood-affected regions of Bhandara and Gadhchiroli.

Meanwhile, the stock in the seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai are at 95 per cent. It is higher what it was in the previous two years.