The Santacruz weather station, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, on Tuesday recorded 1,461mm rain till 9.30pm, 7.5mm short of becoming the wettest July since the India Meteorological Department (IMD) began keeping records (1951).
The all-time high record is 1,468.5mm, reported in July 2014.
On Tuesday, the city woke up to an overcast sky, and widespread rain hit various parts of Mumbai. On July 20, the city exceeded the month’s average rainfall of 840mm.
The weather bureau recorded ‘moderate’ rain in both the suburbs and south Mumbai. The Santacruz weather station logged 61.2mm rain between 8.30am and 8.30pm, while Colaba received 41.6mm. Between 8.30am on Monday and 8.30am on Tuesday, 38.9mm rain was recorded at the Santacruz weather station, and 20.4mm at the Colaba weather station.
Since June 1, the city has witnessed above normal rain – 1918.8mm (an excess of 610mm) and 1473.8mm (an excess of 245mm) at the Santacruz and Colaba weather stations.
Under the weather department’s classification, 15.6mm to 64.4mm of rain is considered ‘moderate’, 64.5mm to 115.5mm is ‘heavy’, 115.6mm to 204.4mm is ‘very heavy’, and more than 204.5mm is ‘extreme’.
India Meteorological Department (IMD)officials attributed the rain to westerly winds that travel from sea to land. “Southwest monsoon was strong over northeast Arabian Sea, central Arabian Sea and moderate over south Arabian Sea,” read the statement from IMD.
Sridhar Balasubramanian, associate professor, department of mechanical engineering and associate faculty, IDP Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, said, two factors resulted in widespread rain on Tuesday. “The low-pressure area that was over the Bay of Bengal has moved over land in central India, strengthening the westerly winds from the Arabian Sea. At the same time, an upper air circulation over the Arabian Sea led to convection and moisture incursion,” said Balasubramanian.
On Tuesday, the maximum temperature at Colaba was 27.7 degrees Celsius and 28 degrees Celsius at Santacruz. Minimum temperatures were 24 degrees Celsius and 24.6 degrees Celsius in south Mumbai and suburbs, respectively. Humidity levels were 93% at Colaba and 91% at Santacruz. IMD has forecast intermittent rain or showers with heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places on Wednesday, with maximum and minimum temperatures at 29 degrees Celsius and 24 degrees Celsius on Wednesday
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