IMD downgrades yellow alert for city, predicts moderate showers
MUMBAI: A day after issuing a yellow alert for heavy rain in isolated areas for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the weather bureau on Thursday downgraded its warning, predicting light to moderate showers from Friday to Monday.
While the city could witness occasional intense rain spells between Thursday night and Friday morning, light to moderate thundershowers are expected on Friday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Independent meteorologists, however, said an increase in rain activity was expected, but unlikely to cause inconvenience to commuters or waterlogging. Meanwhile on Thursday morning, residents in the suburbs woke up to moderate thundershowers, even as light showers were reported from remaining parts of the city. Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, recorded 49mm of rain between 5.30am and 8.30am, while 0.2mm rain was recorded in Colaba, representative of south Mumbai. Parts of eastern suburbs recorded moderate showers, with Vidyavihar and Chembur receiving 45.8mm and 34.6mm rainfall. In the western suburbs, the rainfall ranged between 25mm and 33m for most locations, with Oshiwara recording the heaviest rainfall at 33mm. In the island city, Dadar and Worli recorded 33.2mm and 32.8mm rainfall between 5.30am and 8.30am.
“Owing to a lack of strong weather system, monsoon conditions are not likely to be as active as expected along the north Konkan coast, and the rain activity is expected to shift towards interior Maharashtra and south Konkan,” said an IMD official.
Professor Sridhar Balasubramanian, department of mechanical engineering and IDP Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology-bombay, said, “Due to an offshore trough created by an Arabian Sea system, the west coast is very likely to receive moderate to heavy rain between Friday and Sunday.”
Akshay Deoras, independent meteorologist and PHD researcher at the University of Reading, United Kingdom, said, “It will be light rain with few moderate spells towards the suburbs.”