Mumbai rains: City at serious risk of flooding

Pic courtesy/Atul Kamble

According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Mumbai is likely to witness heavy downpour on Monday. With heavy rains for the third consecutive day on Sunday, the city has surpassed its required June rainfall by recording 515.1mm of rain - 10.1mm which is above normal. According to IMD data, nearly 64.9% (327.7mm) of showers required in the month of June (505mm) was received in the last three days.

Also Read: Mumbai rains: Long wait for lakes to overflow

For live updates on Mumbai Rains click here

"Any crop pattern used by farmers in our country is not dependent on one or two days of rain, but rainfall received over a period of time. So, such averaging done sometimes could be very misleading," stated Dr Rakesh Kumar, director and scientist of National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI). "A few years ago, we had done data analysis for climate change-related impact and taken 20-25 years of rain data and looked at the number of rainy days. We found that the number of rain days are actually declining." he added.

According to Times of India, since monsoon onset on Tuesday, the city received its first heavy showers on Friday. IMD Santacruz observatory recorded 234.8mm rainfall in the 24 hours ending Saturday 8.30am and marked it as the highest 24-hour June rain since 2015 and the second highest in a decade. On Sunday, Santacruz recorded 92.9mm rainfall, which is tagged in the ‘heavy rain' category. On Sunday, till 8.30pm, Santacruz and Colaba recorded 9.4mm and 16mm rainfall, respectively, Thane 40mm and Navi Mumbai 163mm.

Also Read: Mumbai Rains: IMD predicts heavy rainfall in city suburbs

The IMD has predicted heavy rain showers on Monday. K S Hosalikar, the deputy director general (meteorology), Regional IMD, stated: "We expect cloudy sky, intermittent heavy showers." Skymet has also given a ‘heavy shower' forecast for next week. "Mumbai is at serious risk of flooding between July 3 and 5. Close to 200mm or more rain/day is going to batter the city during this period, which could hamper normal life. July also looks extremely promising for Mumbai after good rains were observed in the month of June," stated Jatin Singh, founder and managing director of Skymet.

Also Read: Mumbai Rains: Trains rescheduled, railway tracks submerged due to heavy downpour

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates