Mumbai Rains: IMD issues orange alert for 3 days after 100 mm rain

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued an orange alert for Mumbai after it rained 114 mm between 8 am on Thursday and 7 am on Friday.

The IMD also issued the alert for nearby Thane, Palghar and Raigad.

The IMD said that moderate to intense spells of rain at isolated places are expected at these places.

In Mumbai, the eastern suburbs recorded an average of 102 mm of rainfall and the western suburbs 109 mm between Thursday and Friday.

In the previous 24 hours ending on Thursday, several areas of Mumbai recorded more than 200 mm of rainfall, PTI reported BMC as saying.

Even as waterlogging was reported in low-lying areas and some local train routes witnessed 10-15 minutes of delay, a Central Railway spokesperson said that they reported over 180 mm of rainfall in the period but did not experience any major waterlogging and local train services on all four corridors operated normally.

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For July, the IMD has said that the first two weeks are expected to witness good rainfall over the west coast and parts of central India, but third and fourth weeks are expected to witness below-normal rainfall over much of the country.

Experts have said that the second half of July is expected to drier in Maharashtra as India witnessed the third-driest monsoon in June. In any case, the monsoon has been late and weaker than usual this year, arriving in Kerala nine days later and forecast to be the weakest in nine years.

El Nino has been credited as one of the reasons for the erratic and weak rainfall. The forecast at the onset of the season said El Nino should be moderate and strong in the latter half of the monsoon season.

El Nino refers to a climate pattern in which sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean become warmer than usual. This alters air pressure, cloud formation, and wind patterns. The phenomenon usually translates into weaker monsoons for India.