India Meteorological Department on Monday scaled up its weather warning for Mumbai. It has issued a red alert for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad for Wednesday. There is a red alert for Palghar alone on Thursday as well.
On Sunday, a low pressure area formed over southeast and adjoining eastcentral Arabian Sea early morning and persisted till forenoon. It intensified into a depression, moved north-northwestwards and lay centred there, 630km south-southwest of Mumbai in the Arabian Sea, on Monday. It is very likely to intensify into a Deep Depression by Monday evening and intensify further into a cyclonic storm- Cyclone Nisarga- on Tuesday. It is very likely to move nearly northwards initially until June 2 and then recurve north-northeastwards and cross north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts between Harihareshwar and Daman on June 3.
Therefore, IMD has issued a red alert (extremely heavy rain at isolated places) for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts for Wednesday. Besides, red alert will continue on Thursday for Palghar. IMD had initially issued orange alert (heavy to very heavy rain at a few places) for Mumbai and Thane. The four districts will see heavy rain on Tuesday as well. On Thursday, Mumbai, Thane and Raigad have an orange alert. Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar also have a red alert for Wednesday.
Wind speeds will be very high (gale winds) in these four districts. Sea conditions will be very rough and high to very high over eastcentral Arabian Sea in this duration. Fishermen have been advised not to go into the sea.
NDRF team survey Ratnagiri coast line ahead of cyclone Nisarga warning by IMD, on June 1, 2020.
Many parts of Mumbai experienced a few showers on Monday itself. Mumbai recorded maximum temperature of 34 degrees Celsius on Monday and minimum temperature of 26.8 degrees Celsius. IMD’s Colaba observatory recorded a slight rainfall of 0.2mm whereas Santacruz observatory remained zero by the end of the day.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a video conference with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray regarding cyclone Nisarga.
Mr Shah clarified that disaster response teams from neighbouring states have been kept on alert and will be sent to Maharashtra if needed.
Maharashtra government has given alert in coastal districts of Mumbai city, Mumbai suburbs, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. Fishermen have been called back.
India Meteorological Department has scaled up its weather warning for Mumbai. It has issued a red alert for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad for Wednesday. Initially, IMD had given an orange alert (heavy to very heavy rain) for the same day. A red alert means extremely heavy rainfall likely in Mumbai.
Gujarat braces for cyclone
In anticipation of a cyclonic storm making landfall on the Gujarat coast on June 3, the Gujarat government on Monday ordered evacuation of people living in low-lying areas and deployed 10 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in over half a dozen districts.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the low-pressure area formed over the Arabian Sea has intensified into a depression and it will further intensify into a cyclonic storm in the next 36 hours.
“The (low-pressure) system is around 900km away from Surat at present. We expect the cyclonic storm to hit the southern Gujarat coast near Daman on June 3 evening with a wind speed of 90 to 100 km per hour.
“It will bring heavy rainfall in the south Gujarat region on June 3 and 4. It may have some impact in Bhavnagar and Amreli districts of the Saurashtra region as well,” said Director of MET Centre, Jayanta Sarkar.
Ahead of the storm, the weather of Bhavnagar suddenly changed on Monday as strong winds coupled with rain lashed the city in the morning.
Sudden thunderstorm uprooted trees as well as solar panels at some places in the district, said officials.
In view of the cyclonic activity over the Arabian Sea, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday chaired a high-level meet in Gandhinagar to assess the preparedness of the state machinery to tackle all eventualities.
Following the meeting, Mr. Rupani said 10 teams of the NDRF have already taken position in five districts of south Gujarat and Bhavnagar and Amreli districts of Saurashtra to deal with any situation arising out of the cyclone.
These five districts of south Gujarat are Surat, Bharuch, Navsari, Valsad and Dang.
“These five districts along with Bhavnagar and Amreli have been put on high alert while other districts have been asked to remain alert.
“While 10 teams of the NDRF have already taken their position, five teams of the SDRF have been put on a stand-by.
I urge people of these areas to remain indoors on June 3 and 4,” Mr. Rupani told reporters.
Mr. Rupani said while all fishermen of south Gujarat and Saurashtra have been called back from the sea, salt-pan workers of these regions have been shifted to safer locations.
“District collectors have been asked to shift people from low-lying areas to safer places. The collectors have been also asked to make sure electricity supply to COVID-19 hospitals in their respective areas does not get affected.
“A control room has been activated in Gandhinagar to monitor the situation,” the Chief Minister said.
(With inputs from PTI)
