Veraval, the coastal town of Saurashtra-Gujarat witnessed unprecedented downpours, setting an all-time record for heaviest rainfall in 24 hours. The city received 520mm of rainfall between 8.30 am on 18th July to 8.30 am on 19th July 2023. Heavy rain is expected over and around the city in the next 48 hours as well. The deluge has submerged many societies and the water level is rising and inundating some residential areas also. Veraval-Kodinar highway has been closed to traffic.
Veraval, the fishing hub, has a past record of coming in the firing line of some tropical storms, both in the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. The recent one is ‘Tauktae’, an extremely severe cyclonic storm which struck the coastline between Veraval and Diu on 17th May 2021. However, such heavy rainfall does not find any parallel and goes on record to be an all-time high 24-hour rainfall. Earlier, the city received 301.6mm of rainfall in 24 hours on 03rd July 1960. The coastal town has also surpassed its earlier monthly record of 719.3mm in July 1954. Between the 01st and 19th July 2023, the city has already registered 776.7mm of rainfall, another milestone of all-time high rainfall.
A cyclonic circulation in the lower levels is marked over the Gulf of Kutch and adjoining Saurashtra. The offshore trough remains active for coastal Gujarat and Konkan. Still, such a micro-scale weather event remains beyond the capability of weather models to predict in real-time. The proximity of the Arabian Sea and other meteorological features still leave the southern coast of Saurashtra, from Mahuva to Porbandar, including Veraval, vulnerable to heavy rainfall for the next 2 days, albeit with lesser intensity.
