The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an yellow alert and forecast thunderstorm with lightning and gusty winds in Mumbai and Thane on Saturday. The agency has also forecast rain for Palghar and issued an orange alert (very heavy rain) for Raigad district for Saturday. The IMD expects the weather conditions to continue till Tuesday.
Several parts of the city such as Dadar, Powai, Bhandup, and Airoli reported light to heavy rainfall on Friday. This was after the city’s maximum temperature touched 36 degrees Celsius, two degrees above normal. The all-time record for Mumbai’s daytime temperature in October is 38.6 degrees Celsius, recorded on October 17, 2015.
Due to a low pressure area in the Arabian Sea, the city had overcast skies from late morning. People also took to social media to report the unexpected showers.
Explaining the phenomenon, K.S. Hosalikar, deputy director general, IMD, tweeted, “Low pressure area now lies over South East Arabian Sea and adjoining areas of Lakshadweep and East Central Arabian Sea with associated cyclonic circulation. It is likely to become more marked around 20th October.” The Hindu reported on October 14 that monsoon has withdrawn from the city.
Akshay Deoras, a meteorologist and Ph.D. scholar at the University of Reading, U.K., who has been tracking the monsoon closely, tweeted on Thursday: “#Mumbai and the MMR region can expect light rain showers along with cloudy #weather conditions on Oct 19 and 20. Chances of rain showers are higher in the eastern outskirts. Easterly surface winds will continue to keep the discomfort high on Oct 17 and 18. Higher relative humidity on Oct 19 will lead to more discomfort since the heat index (temperature feel) is expected to rise. Relative humidity is expected to stay high at least till early next week.”
On October 16, the State government had issued an advisory regarding the possibility of more rain from October 18 and asked farmers to take necessary precautions.
