The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday scaled up its weather warning, issuing a red alert for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad for Wednesday. There is a red alert for Palghar on Thursday as well.
On Sunday, a low pressure area formed over south-east and adjoining east-central Arabian Sea in the early morning and remained till forenoon.
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It intensified into a depression, moved north-northwestwards, and lay centred there, 630 km south-southwest of Mumbai, on Monday.
Deep depression
It is very likely to intensify into a deep depression by Monday evening and turn 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.
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Therefore, the IMD has issued a red alert (extremely heavy rain at isolated places) for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts for Wednesday. The IMD had initially issued an 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. Mumbai, Thane and Raigad have an orange alert for Thursday. Nashik, Dhule, and Nandurbar have a red alert for Wednesday.
Tall waves
There will be very high wind speed in these four districts, while sea will be very rough and high to very high over east-central Arabian Sea. Fishermen have been advised not to go into the sea.
Meanwhile, many parts of Mumbai experienced light showers on Monday. The IMD’s Colaba observatory recorded a rainfall of 0.2 mm whereas Santacruz observatory remained zero by the end of the day. The city recorded a maximum temperature of 34°C and a minimum temperature of 26.8°C on Monday.