Mumbai Rains: IMD mum after heavy rain forecast falls flat

A picture of 2 people walking through floods

As against the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Mumbai's heavy rain predictions for Monday, there was hardly any rain through the day. Following the IMD's warnings, the state government had declared holiday for schools and colleges across Mumbai, suburbs, and neighbouring districts on Monday. While the government attributed the decision to IMD's warning, the IMD remained silent and refrained from commenting over its prediction gone wrong.

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The IMD had classified the city and suburbs under Code Orange suggesting heavy to very heavy rain on Monday, it was later changed to Code Green suggesting moderate rain. On Monday, Colaba and Santacruz observatories of IMD recorded just 12.2 mm and 61.6 mm rainfall, respectively. Meanwhile, forecast for Tuesday suggests few spells of rain in the city and suburbs with maximum and minimum temperature expected to be 30 degrees Celsius and 25 degrees Celsius.

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Wrong prediction annoys citizens

Saili Raut, a Dahisar resident, who works at Andheri, was among the many citizens prepared for a heavy rain day. "Social media was full of heavy rainfall messages on Sunday night. When the state government declared holiday for schools and colleges, it appeared all the more serious. But on Monday there were hardly any rain," she said. Another Andheri resident Purnima Naik, whose daughter is seeking admission to Std XI, complained that the holiday unnecessarily "extended college admissions."

"The colleges were supposed to confirm admission on Monday but now it is postponed to August 7. This means further delay in the special round to be held for all those who still remain without any seat through the centralised admission procedure," added Naik. When contacted, IMD Mumbai Director K S Hosalikar said, "The mumbai forecast was updated in evening yesterday as per SOP for heavy rainfall and it got realised during night. Today's forecast is intermittent showers in Mumbai. That is happening, as we all know. All realtime updates are available on IMD Mumbai website."

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