Wet Days Ahead For Mumbai: Heavy Rainfall Starts On Weekend
Image: AI-Skymet
Heavy monsoon rains are coming up for Mumbai shortly. The city has not had typical Mumbai monsoon rains for the last one week. An intense and widespread wet spell is expected over the city and suburbs starting on the weekend and extending till mid-week next. This could also be the last significant monsoon round before it withdraws, nearly coinciding with its normal date.
A fresh low-pressure area is likely to form over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) tomorrow. The pre-existing system over that region will also get subsumed, and a depression will form on 26th September over the Northwest and West-Central BoB. This will be a strong monsoon system and is likely to cross South Odisha and North Coastal Andhra Pradesh on 27th September. The upcoming bout of rains over Mumbai will be under the influence of this system.
The depression will have a broad area of influence. It is likely to track across South Odisha, South Chhattisgarh, North Telangana, Vidarbha, and East Madhya Pradesh. The peripherals of the system will extend to the whole of Maharashtra and West Madhya Pradesh. The weather activity will reach even South Coastal Gujarat and the outermost strip of Southeast Rajasthan. As the monsoon has withdrawn from most parts of Rajasthan, Kutch, North Gujarat, and some parts of Punjab and Haryana, the wind pattern will not allow this weather system to proceed beyond these regions. The Konkan Coast in general, and Mumbai in particular, will be the favorite for parting monsoon rains commencing on the weekend.
Mumbai has crossed its monthly normal rainfall for September. It has logged 429.3 mm of rainfall between 1st and 24th September, against its monthly normal of 341.4 mm. Mostly light rains are expected for the next three days, between 24th and 26th September. The rains will be moderate on 27th September and pick up significantly thereafter. Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely between 28th and 30th September. It may cause disruption to rail, road, and air traffic. Moderate rains with a few heavy spells will spill over and last till 2nd–3rd October. The withdrawal of the monsoon may coincide narrowly with its normal date of 8th October.
