Intense rain in store for parts of Maharashtra

PUNE: Intense rain spells are likely to lash parts of Maharashtra during the next few days, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) upgrading its rain warning from moderate to heavy to very heavy rainfall during the next few days in parts of Madhya Maharashtra and Konkan.

"Districts such as Raigad and Ratnagiri have been issued an orange alert by the IMD, while others are on a yellow alert. However, many districts are likely to experience heavy or heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated locations till September 11-12. These include Pune, Nashik, Sindhudurg, Satara, Kolhapur, Nanded and Mumbai, among others, as per the Regional Meteorological Center (RMC), Mumbai," Kashyapi said.

When it comes to the Pune city, the Wednesday's rainfall, as earlier indicated by the Met department, was moderately intense to intense and convective in nature.
"The Wednesday's rainfall in the city was typically localised, characteristic of convective rainfall associated with monsoon flow. Such rains are a result of the local heating that occurred in the city during the last few days ( even on today forenoon) due to abundant sunshine. This, coupled with moisture incursion due to the available weather systems created a situation that resulted in formation of Cumulonimbus cloud with some intense spells in Pune," Anupam Kashyapi, head of weather forecasting division, IMD, Pune, told TOI on Wednesday.
IMD on Wednesday upgraded the forecast for Pune city to include one or few intense spells as well as moderate rainfall till September 11, with isolated heavy to very heavy rain in the ghat areas.
"IMD has alerted the state authorities to take suitable precautions as the upcoming rainfall spells could cause localized flooding on roads, waterlogging in the low-lying areas and closure of underpasses mainly in the urban areas, besides occasional reduction in visibility, disruption of traffic and minor damage to kutcha roads. There is also a possibility of damage to vulnerable structures and localized landslides/mudslides. We also suggest that people avoid visiting Pune's ghat areas during the next few days," Kashyapi said.
Around 7.15pm on Wednesday, Kashyapi alerted the civic authorities about a huge cloud mass approaching the Pune city, along with west-northwesterly winds, with more intense spells of rain likely in Pune, as per radar images.
On Wednesday afternoon, IMD had issued a 'Now Cast' warning about thunderstorm accompanied with lightning and moderate to intense spells of rain with momentarily strong/gusty winds very likely to occur at isolated places in the districts of Pune, Satara and Nanded during the subsequent 3-4 hours.
(With inputs from Gitesh Shelke)