Showers surpass Mumbai's September rain average

MUMBAI: After an almost dry August, September rainfall has brought much relief to the city. At 377 mm, it has crossed the monthly normal of about 360 mm. While September saw no extremely heavy rain activity, consistent showers ensured that the rain average was met, said the IMD. According to officials, rainfall for the month could even cross 400 mm with six days left to go.
In its five-day forecast, the IMD said light to moderate rainfall coupled with thundershowers are very likely in parts of Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad. In the 24 hours ending 8.30am on Sunday, rainfall recorded by the Colaba and Santacruz observatories were 21mm and 16mm, respectively.
Independent meteorologists predict that as the monsoon recedes, sporadic thunderstorms may bring either heavy or minimal rainfall to the city in localized pockets, ruling out widespread precipitation. The official monsoon withdrawal date for the city is October 8.
Abhijit Modak, an independent forecaster who runs the Konkan Weather blog, said, "An upper air circulation may form in shear zone around September 27-28 over southeast interior Maharashtra/north interior Karnataka, which may bring thunderstorm weather over the entire state between September 26-30. In the case of Mumbai, depending upon how and where popups occur, the city may see varied intensity thunderstorms and may be of hit/miss type nature."
The trend observed during the four monsoons months this year beginning from June has been that while June and July were able to meet the monthly average rain requirement, August was excessively dry with the month becoming the second-driest in a decade as the rainfall deficit was nearly 60%.
Morbe dam, which supplies Navi Mumbai, has overflowed. It also supplies parts of Panvel City and a few villages.
(Inputs by BB Nayak)