With four days left for the month to end, Mumbai’s island city division on Thursday surpassed its average rainfall quota for June.
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Data furnished by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed that until Thursday, the Colaba coastal observatory logged 548.2 mm rain in June, surpassing its average rainfall for the month which stands at 542 mm. According to officials, this is a positive departure of 90 mm from the actual normals.
Meanwhile, suburban station in Santacruz has only logged 478 mm rain this month, resulting in a shortfall of 10 per cent against its average of 537 mm for May.
According to the IMD, the city will continue to experience heavy downpour in the coming days with a yellow alert sounded in Mumbai and its neighbouring districts until the end of the month (June 30).
Since the onset of monsoon on May 26 — its earliest in the past 75 years — it is Mumbai’s island city division which has been recording very heavy spells, even as the suburban region of the city has remained relatively drier.
The surplus rain in June comes along the heels of the city receiving record rainfall in May when Mumbai city district had logged excess rainfall of over 3,025 per cent from its actual average rainfall for the season, while the Santacruz station clocked in excess rainfall by 1,945 per cent.
Spurred by an early onset and intermittent spells throughout the month, overall, the Colaba station has received 1051 mm since May while the Santacruz station has clocked in 857 mm rainfall during the same period.
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Meteorologists have attributed the heavier spells of showers in the island city to the favourable alignment of systems that trigger monsoon currents, which resulted in more rainfall towards the southern parts of Mumbai.
Typically, southwest monsoon in Mumbai kicks off with heavy spells in the tip of South Mumbai in Colaba owing to intense rainfall in Raigad and arrival of monsoon winds from the direction. This year too, when monsoon onset was announced in May, it was the Colaba station that received the heaviest downpour with some areas like Nariman Point, Byculla, Colaba amongst others such as Do Taki area recording over 200 mm rain within a 24-hour window.
At a time when the suburban pockets have experienced relatively drier spells, the IMD has forecast that heavy spells of rain are here to stay in isolated pockets of Mumbai and neighbouring districts in the suburbs like Thane and Palghar until Monday (June 30). While Mumbai has been placed under a yellow alert until the end of the month, districts like Raigad and Ratnagiri have been placed under an orange alert on Sunday and Monday.
