Mumbai receives all-time record monsoon rainfall this year: Data

MUMBAI: With another 15 days still to go till the end of this year’s rains, the city has already recorded its wettest-ever monsoon, with 3,458.2mm rain between June and September 15, despite a 15-day delay in the season’s onset.

Prior to 2019, the all-time record was 3,451.6mm in 1954, according to reports from the disaster management cell of the BMC and the Maharashtra government. The reports are based on data recorded by the meteorological department (IMD).

The IMD, however, did not confirm that the record had been broken and said they needed to check their entire data repository. “Rainfall during this monsoon is the highest since 2001, but for records from further past, we will have go through historical data at our office,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, India Meteorological Department.

“Even after the late onset, this has been a record year. All the monthly averages were achieved within the first 4-5 rainy days. This shows that extreme events are on the rise owing to climate change,” said Sridhar Balasubramanian, associate professor, department of mechanical engineering, IDP Climate Studies, IIT- B.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region received surplus rains during the monsoon primarily owing to the Indian Ocean Dipole effect — an ocean-atmosphere phenomenon — with a difference in sea surface temperatures characterised by cooling in parts of Indian Ocean leading to enhanced rain, he said.