Mumbai downpour: City receives 600 mm more rainfall than usual, says IMD

Pic/Satej Shinde

Heavy rainfall has been lashing parts of Mumbai since the beginning of the week which has led to waterlogging in several areas and disrupted road and rail traffic. The India Meteorological Department in their nowcast weather update stated that the city, suburbs and surrounding areas will likely be receiving heavy rainfall for the next 3-4 hours.

IMD official speaking to mid-day.com about Mumbai rains said that the city has already received more rainfall than it received until July 25.

IMD Director Sunil Kamble said that Mumbai has received 600 mm excess rainfall than it is expected. "Normally, since the onset of monsoon in Mumbai until July-end, Mumbai records an average rainfall of 1200 mm. This year, in the same time frame, Mumbai has recorded 1800 mm of rainfall indicating we have received 600 mm excess rainfall," Kamble said.

As the rainfall in the city continued, a fourth of the seven lakes supplying water to Mumbai overflowed on Thursday. On July 25, Modak Sagar Lake, which has a maximum storage capacity of 1,28,925 million litres began flowing completely around 10.40 am today.

Modak Sagar is the fourth lake to overflow this season this year. Earlier on Thursday, Vihar Lake, with a storage capacity of 27,698 million litres, overflowed around 3.50 am. On Wednesday, Tansa Lake began overflowing and earlier Tulsi River began overflowing amid Mumbai rains continued to lash the city.

The India Meteorological Department data on Mumbai rains showed that the Colaba observatory has received 63 mm of rainfall and the Santacruz observatory has received 68 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.

Mumbai rains: City, suburbs to receive intense rainfall

"Intense to very intense spells of rain very likely to occur at isolated places in the districts of Mumbai, Mumbai suburb, Thane, Raigad, Ghat areas of Pune during next 3-4 hours," said IMD in their forecast issued at 10 am.