IMD Upgrades Weather Alert to Orange as Heavy Rains Lash Mumbai and Navi Mumbai
On Wednesday morning, the India Meteorological Department upgraded its weather alert to an orange alert for Mumbai and its neighbouring areas, including Belapur and Digha in Navi Mumbai, following an eighth consecutive day of three-digit rainfall. The intense showers prompted the weather agency to revise its previous yellow alert, as cumulative rainfall in Santacruz neared half of the region's average seasonal monsoon quota in just over a week.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, several parts of the region recorded significant rainfall. The IMD's Santacruz station recorded 125 mm of rain during this 24-hour period, followed by an additional 32.4 mm between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm on Wednesday.
Neighbouring areas also saw heavy downpours. In Navi Mumbai, the Belapur station recorded 57 mm of rain between 8:30 am and 2:30 pm on Wednesday, while the Digha station recorded 50 mm during the same period.
The relentless rain since the start of the month has rapidly filled the region's seasonal quota. Between July 1 and July 8, the Santacruz station recorded 1,115.4 mm of rainfall, which represents nearly 47 percent of the average seasonal monsoon quota of 2,400 mm usually received between June and September. Meanwhile, the Colaba observatory has recorded 903 mm of rainfall so far.
According to Bikram Singh of the IMD, the stagnant nature of four distinct weather systems has driven the continuous rainfall. These systems include an east-west shear zone along 21 degrees north in the middle levels, a circulation over Madhya Pradesh and adjoining areas, a trough extending from North Maharashtra to North Konkan, and a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal. These systems have ushered in significant moisture over the Konkan and Madhya Maharashtra regions.
The heavy rains have also resulted in incidents of tree falls and structural collapses across the region. In Andheri, a 50-year-old man named Aadesh Gaikar was injured and hospitalized at Cooper Hospital after a roadside tree fell near the Andheri subway. In Wadala's Shanti Nagar, a ground-plus-one-storey building collapsed on Tuesday night, injuring three residents identified as Khushbu Khan, Ashish Singh, and Sunil Yadav.
The IMD has forecast that the heavy rain will begin to subside, with a yellow alert in place for Thursday, followed by light rain across Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, and Raigad over the weekend.
