Mumbai rains: IMD issues yellow alert for the city; heavy rainfall warning in parts of Maharashtra in next 4-5 days
3 min read 24 Jun 2023, 07:39 AM ISTMonsoon has finally arrived in Mumbai after a significant delay, with heavy rainfall predicted for the city and surrounding areas.
PremiumAfter a long delay, monsoon has finally hit the Mumbai city on 24 June. Moreover, the weather department has issued a yellow alert for Mumbai city. IMD has also given heavy rainfall in parts of Maharashtra in the next 4-5 days.
"Rainfall intensity to gradually increase over parts of Maharashtra during next 4-5 days. Indication of expected severe weather in the next 5 days," said, Regional Meteorological Center, Mumbai, in a tweet.
As per latest updates, the weather bureau had also predicted light to moderate spells of rain to occur at isolated places in the districts of Raigad, Thane, Palghar and Mumbai during the next 3-4 hours.
Earlier, IMD had said that the monsoon season is likely to reach the city on June 24. "Conditions are favourable for the monsoon to move further towards Raigad, Thane, Mumbai and Palghar. Monsoon is likely to reach Mumbai by June 24," said IMD Mumbai earlier this week.
According to reports, the Met department has issued a yellow alert for June 26 to 27. Such an alert indicates that the city and adjoining areas will receive heavy rain at isolated places.
The city faced a significant rainfall deficit in the first month of the season. Normally, the monsoon officially begins in Mumbai around June 10 or 11.
Earlier, Skymet weather agency had said that monsoon is expected to arrive in Mumbai by June 27. The weather tracking agency predicted that Mumbai can witness one of the most delayed monsoons this year. Its arrival date will coincide with the earlier record date of June 27. Skymet predicted heavy rainfall for 2-3 days beginning on 27 June and lasting till end of the month.
Such a record in delay in the season was experienced in 2009, when monsoon arrived in Mumbai on 27 June. The delay was the result of El Nino. The condition was the culprit of delayed monsoons in 2012, 2014, and 2015. This year, despite fulfilling all the preconditions of rainfall, typical monsoon rains remained absent in Mumbai. The delayed arrival of the monsoon in Kerala was further delayed by cyclone Biparjoy.
A report by Times of India had earlier stated that the city has received only 5 percent of the required rainfall in June. It added that the city has received a mere 17.9mm out of the expected 342.1mm for June, TOI report stated. The average rainfall for June, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), stands at 526.3mm at the Santacruz observatory.
With the delayed monsoon season, the city have also been grappling with water shortage. As of 20 June, the total water stock stood at 13.9 percent which is 1.59 lakh million litres and without the reserve stock, only 7.7 percent which is 1.11 lakh million litres was left, report by TOI stated. Comparatively, on 20 June 2022 and 2021, the water stock stood at 10.5 percent and 14.16 percent respectively. If rainfall is delayed further, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had indictated water cut for the month of July. Mumbai receives water from seven lakes namely Tansa, Bhatsa, Modak Sagar, Tulsi, Vehar, Upper Vaitarna, and Middle Vaitarna. These lakes are situated in the outskirts of Mumbai as well as neighboring districts such as Thane, Bhiwandi, and Nashik.
