A red alert has been issued for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad for Friday, indicating heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places.
While continuous rain was witnessed across Mumbai on Thursday, the IMD maintained its orange alert for the day, indicating that heavy to very heavy rain is likely at a few places. By evening, the city and its suburbs had recorded light to moderate spells, with a few instances of extreme showers.
Though a red alert has been issued for Friday, the following two days will again be under an orange alert. Monsoon rain has crossed the 1,000 mm mark in the city, which has covered the June shortfall. Total rainfall till now has been 1,051 mm at the Santacruz observatory, which is 296 mm above normal. For Colaba, the corresponding figures are 953.2 mm and 209 mm.
Jayanta Sarkar, head of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai, said widespread rainfall has been witnessed in the past few days in the entire Konkan belt. “The reason for the ongoing spell is an active monsoon condition owing to favourable synoptic situations like very strong westerly winds, and also an offshore trough from south Maharashtra to the north Kerala coast. There is also a cyclonic circulation on the southwest and the adjoining west-central bay,” said Sarkar, indicating that the spell is expected to continue for the next five days.
It is likely that the average July rainfall, which stands at 855 mm, will be covered soon, as 759 mm has already been received. In contrast, Mumbai saw its second lowest June rainfall in a decade with only 292 mm. Rain in the city has kept temperatures below 30 degrees Celsius in recent days. While maximums have been hovering around 27 degrees, minimums have been 24 degrees on average.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/wet-spell-hits-triple-digits-3rd-day-running-in-mumbai-red-alert-today/articleshow/92735446.cms
