Heavy Rain Lashes Mumbai Again Likely To Recede Over Weekend

Despite forecasts of subdued showers, Mumbai and its neighbouring districts woke up to yet another day of heavy rain on Wednesday morning, with the city recording three-digit rainfall for the eighth consecutive day. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has placed Mumbai under a yellow alert with the possibility of “heavy rainfall in isolated places and gusty winds” on Thursday, following which the region is likely to witness only light rain over the weekend.

Parts of Mumbai received over three-digit rainfall between Tuesday and Wednesday, with the IMD’s Santacruz station recording 125 mm of rainfall.

The earlier forecast was the possibility of reduced rainfall from Wednesday; however, the intense showers during the day nudged the IMD to revise its forecast from a “yellow alert” to an “orange alert” on Wednesday. Between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm, Mumbai’s Santacruz station received 32.4 mm of rain. Between 8.30 am and 2.30 pm, Navi Mumbai’s Belapur station recorded 57 mm of rain while Digha received 50 mm of rainfall.

Between July 1 and July 8, total rainfall at Mumbai’s Santacruz station has exceeded 1,115.4 mm, accounting for nearly 47 per cent of the region’s average monsoon quota. On average, the suburban station records nearly 2,400 mm of rainfall between June and September. Meanwhile, the Colaba observatory has recorded 903 mm of rainfall until now.

The incessant showers have been spurred by a confluence of at least four weather systems, which have remained stagnant for a prolonged period.

Bikram Singh told The Indian Express that an east-west shear zone along 21 degrees north in the middle levels – which creates a low-pressure area – has been one of the dominant rain-bringing systems in the region. “Additionally, there is a circulation over Madhya Pradesh and adjoining areas, a trough extending up to North Maharashtra until North Konkan as well as a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal. The systems have remained stagnant and ushered in lots of moisture, culminating in good rainfall over Konkan and the Madhya Maharashtra region of the state,” Singh added.

Light rain is likely across Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad over the weekend, as per IMD.

Multiple cases of tree and house collapses were reported in Mumbai and its neighbouring districts amidst continuous rain on Wednesday. A 50-year-old man sustained injuries after a roadside tree fell near the Andheri subway, a chronic flooding spot. The injured, Aadesh Gaikar, was taken to the civic-run Cooper Hospital.

Earlier, a tree collapsed in Mumbai, claiming two lives in a week. On June 30, 11-year-old Vihan Srivastava was killed after a peepal tree came crashing down on his school van in Chembur, while Yunush Kundawala (63), a resident of BKC’s Bharat Nagar, was killed when a tree collapsed on his shop on July 5.

On Tuesday night, three people sustained injuries after a ground-plus-one-storey building came crashing down in Wadala’s Shanti Nagar. The injured have been identified as Khushbu Khan (27), Ashish Singh (40) and Sunil Yadav (30). Khushbu sustained minor head injuries, while Ashish incurred injuries on his left hand, and Sunil sustained minor injuries on his leg.