Heavy rain likely in next 48 hours, warns IMD

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in a few spots in the city in the next 48 hours, owing to cyclonic rotation over the Arabian Sea. On Saturday, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), taking into consideration the IMD notification, issued an extreme rainfall warning to Mumbaikars. Weather experts confirmed that Mumbai has recorded 403 mm rainfall so far, and it’s nearing the Long Period Average of the season at 523.1 mm.

Weather experts, in the wake of the continuous rainfall and weather predictions released by IMD for the next 48 hours, withdrew the possibility of monsoon deficiency in June. As the Southwest monsoon was delayed by almost 10 days this year, experts had expressed concerns of monsoon deficiency in June, which would affect the overall LPA of the season.

The Colaba and Santa Cruz observatories of the IMD recorded 58.2 mm and 115.2 mm rainfall within 24 hours of June 24 and June 25 respectively. The satisfactory rainfall has resulted in total seasonal rainfall to 266.5 mm at Colaba and 380.1 mm at the Santa Cruz observatory — 12.2 per cent and 15.4 per cent of the total average seasonal rainfall of 2016 respectively.

In the view of the IMD warnings, Sudhir Naik, deputy municipal commissioner, general administration department, said that the civic body was prepared for rains. “In view of IMD warning, the municipal commissioner has cancelled all employees’ June 26 leaves. We are not satisfied with the amount of rain received in catchments areas of water-supplying lakes, as the levels are low compared to those of last year. However, no major transportation issues in rail or road traffic or waterlogging issues were reported in any area till Saturday,” said Mr Naik. He added that though there were some reports of fallen tree, walls collapses and minor landslides in Mumbai, no causalities or injuries were reported.

The IMD has warned fishermen not to venture into the sea due to strong winds and heavy rainfall. “Strong winds are blowing at 40-50 kmph along and off the coast,” said IMD weather experts.