Mumbai Rains: Unseasonal showers cool city, bring visibility down

Motorists have been advised to ride carefully amid the showers and stay warm. Pic/Satej Shinde

Mumbai's western suburbs and southern areas received light and continuous unseasonal rainfall a little after 12.30 am on Monday, continuing through most of the night and afternoon, keeping skies cloudy and causing the mercury to dip nearly five degrees.

Mahesh Palawat, Chief Meteorologist at Skymet Weather, said that a low-pressure area formed over the east-central Arabian Sea over the past few days and has now weakened. But a cyclonic circulation persists, the trough from which is extending to the Western parts of Madhya Pradesh and across north Maharashtra and South Gujarat.

Palawat said that although the usual average rainfall received in December is just 1.6 mm for Mumbai, the city had already recorded 6.3 mm rainfall at Santacruz and 19.6 mm in Colaba on Tuesday.

"The southern parts of Mumbai have been receiving more of this scattered rainfall," Palawat said, adding that the weather would start clearing up by Wednesday morning.

"The daytime temperatures have dropped by five degrees with the maximum temperature being 27.6°C and minimum temperature being 23.8°C," he said.

Around 3 pm, Palawat said on Twitter that the clouds were moving east towards Aurangabad, Shirdi, Ahmednagar, and parts of Pune, taking with them the patchy rainfall.

The India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Mumbai centre's Deputy Director-General K S Hosalikar said on Twitter, "December rains in Mumbai are not much routine...Sky obscured, poor visibility...It's all wet…Of course no serious threat please." He also urged people to mind the slippery roads and poor visibility and drive slowly.

Dr Marius Dsouza, assistant professor at JJ Hospital, said: "When people roam outdoors at such times and breathe in the cold air, it cools the respiratory tract and predisposes the body towards infections. The weather change is making people sick with mild flu symptoms. It is not really possible to differentiate between the flu and COVID without a test. People should avoid getting drenched in the rain and getting exposed to the cold weather. They should wear warm clothes."

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