In 15 days of July, Mumbai got 40% of monthly average rainfall
MUMBAI: Fifteen days into July, the city has received 40% of the normal rainfall for the entire month. This comes to a total of 333.5mm of rain, against the monthly average of 827mm. The situation is in sharp contrast to last year’s monsoon, when the city had recorded 927mm of rain by July 16, surpassing the seasonal normal rainfall.
Officials said this trend is indicative of an erratic monsoon season — characterised by heavy, intense showers concentrated over fewer days — but clarified that there is no cause for alarm, as the city has recorded near normal levels of rainfall across the season (from June 1 to June 15).
“In total, there has been about 1,295mm of rainfall since June 1, which is 97% of the seasonal normal of 1332.5mm up to the end of July. The long period average for only the first 15 days of July comes to about 402mm of rain. Mumbai’s monitoring station in the suburbs has received 333.5mm of rain, which is only a 17% departure from normal,” said a spokesperson with the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) regional forecasting centre in Mumbai.
In all, the city has so far received 58.7% of the total seasonal rainfall expected up to the end of September. That’s 1,295mm against the long period average of 2,205mm. On July 16 last year, the city had received the same proportion of its seasonal average, the IMD official pointed out. Akshay Deoras, an independent meteorologist and PHD researcher at the University of Reading, said, “The sum is the same, but rainfall distribution this year is skewed. This July though, Mumbai is likely to receive below-normal rainfall because the forecast for the remaining two weeks is not very promising.”
As per official forecasts, the maximum temperature over next five days is expected to rise to 32 degrees Celsius, and the minimum temperature will rise to 26 degrees Celsius.