Showers bring relief, but IMD says monsoon 48 hours away

The city recorded over 38 m.m. of rainfall on Sunday, even as the Indian Metrological Department said the southwest monsoon would take another 48 hours to hit Mumbai. The IMD forecast that the city and its suburbs will receive a few spells of rain and thundershowers in the next 48 hours.

The southwest monsoon had hit Kerala on June 8, and on Sunday, it advanced to some more parts of the central Arabian Sea, Goa, some parts of south Konkan, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, and some more parts of Vidarbha, the IMD said.

“The monsoon has set in only up to Harnai. It will cover remaining parts of Konkan including Mumbai in the next 48 hours,” said V.K. Rajeev, director of weather forecasting at IMD.

On Sunday, the civic body recorded 38.23 m.m. rain in the city and 15.50 m.m. on the western suburbs by 10 p.m. The eastern suburbs received comparatively lesser rain with only 9.63 m.m.

In Mumbai, it started raining in the wee hours of Sunday and the skies remained overcast all day, opening up again in the evening.

By 7.30 p.m., however, waterlogging was reported in low-lying areas, including King’s Circle, and various parts of Dadar including Hindmata, Hindu Colony and Ranade Road.

Waterlogging was also reported at Gandhi Market in Sion and R.A. Kidwai Road in Wadala. No trees were uprooted, said officials manning the disaster management helpline of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

Both Western and Central Railway officials said train services were not affected.

The monsoon hit other parts of the country as well including east Madhya Pradesh, southeast Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and parts of north interior Karnataka, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.