Mumbai Receives Moderate Showers, IMD Issues Yellow Warning for City and Thane

Mumbai, 5th September 2024: Following a brief pause in rainfall, Mumbai experienced moderate showers on Thursday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow warning for Mumbai and Thane until Friday morning, alongside an orange alert for Raigad district. As the city prepares for the upcoming Ganeshotsav, moderate showers are expected to persist through Monday, according to the weather bureau.

The IMD’s Santacruz observatory recorded 24 mm of rainfall between Wednesday and Thursday morning, while Colaba’s coastal observatory recorded 11 mm. Data from the BMC’s automatic weather station indicated that the eastern suburbs saw 27 mm of rain on average, followed by the island city with 18 mm and the western suburbs with 15 mm during the same period.

Due to the resurgence of rainfall, the IMD upgraded the warning to a yellow alert for Mumbai and Thane on Thursday afternoon, warning of possible heavy rainfall in some areas. In Raigad district, an orange alert, indicating potential heavy to very heavy rain in isolated areas, was in effect until Friday morning.

With heavy rains affecting Mumbai throughout the day, the IMD issued at least two nowcast warnings for the city starting Thursday morning.

The weather bureau predicts that while rainfall intensity will decrease starting Friday, moderate showers are expected to continue over the weekend, coinciding with the start of Ganeshotsav celebrations.

Although no alerts have been issued for Mumbai beyond Thursday, Raigad district remains under a yellow warning for the next four days.

Mahesh Palawat of Skymet Weather Services stated that moderate showers could persist until September 10-11 due to a low-pressure area (LPA). He explained that the LPA in the Bay of Bengal is expected to move toward Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha, which will pull Westerlies from the Arabian Sea, potentially bringing significant rainfall to Mumbai and the North Konkan region until at least September 10-11.

Meanwhile, water levels in the seven lakes that supply Mumbai reached 98.24% on Thursday, the highest in three years. In comparison, lake levels were at 90.54% in 2023 on the same date and had risen to 98% in 2022.

Civic data shows that over the past 24 hours, Middle Vaitarna Lake received the highest rainfall with 39 mm, followed by Upper Vaitarna with 32 mm, while Modak Sagar and Bhatsa lakes each recorded nearly 28 mm.