Heavy rain lashes Mumbai, SoBo records 326mm in 3 days; IMD issues yellow alert for today

MUMBAI: Heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai between July 19-20. Rainfall data logged over three days (July 17-20) indicates that south Mumbai has received 326mm of rains in a 72-hour span.
In the 24 hours ending 8:30am on Saturday, July 20, rainfall recorded by the IMD Colaba observatory was 111mm, while the IMD Santacruz observatory recorded 93mm rainfall.Meanwhile, intense rain activity was reported on the morning of July 20. As per the IMD’s automatic weather stations, rainfall recorded in several parts of Mumbai was over 100mm in a six-hour span from 4am-10am on July 20.

For instance, Dindoshi recorded 119.8mm of rain, Veena Nagar in Mulund 118.6mm, Magathane 108.8mm, Malad 103.4mm, Malwani 102.2mm. Intense rain was also reported in areas such as Ghatkopar (95mm), Sewri (93.2mm), Mankhurd (91.4mm), Sion, Pratiksha Nagar (89.6mm) and Worli (88.4mm).
The IMD upgraded its forecast for Saturday to an orange alert from a yellow alert, which was issued for July 20 a day ago. An orange alert indicates heavy to very heavy rainfall likely at a few places. Meanwhile, a yellow alert is in place for Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar from Sunday, July 21, up to July 24, Wednesday, indicating heavy rainfall at isolated places.
The IMD said the reason for the wet spell was a depression over the Odisha coast near Chilika Lake, which remained practically stationary at 8:30am on July 20 over the same region near latitude 19.6°N. “It is likely to move further northwestwards across Odisha and Chhattisgarh and weaken gradually into a well-marked low-pressure area during the next 12 hours,” said the IMD. Mumbai is located at 18.9° latitude.
Rainfall continued all through Saturday with some intense spells too. In the nine hours ending at 5:30pm, rainfall recorded by the IMD Colaba and Santacruz observatory was 20.6mm and 52.3mm.