Orange alert for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar for heavy rains : IMD

The IMD has issued an orange alert for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar for Wednesday, forecasting heavy to very heavy rain at some places. The intensity of rains is likely to increase on Tuesday itself. For Raigad and Ratnagiri, a red alert has been issued for July 15.
In the 24 hours up to 8.30am on Monday, the IMD’s Santacruz observatory recorded 69.6mm of rain, categorised as ‘heavy’, while the Colaba observatory logged 22.4mm, which falls in the ‘moderate’ category.
Heavier rain in Thane and suburbs than south Mumbai
On Monday, parts of Mumbai’s suburbs and areas like Thane reported heavy rain as compared to south Mumbai. Weather bureau officials said the rain activity may ease in the city only by the weekend, with light to moderate rainfall forecast from Friday.
Significant rain is needed as lakes supplying water to the city have only 3.39 lakh million litres, or 23.43% of water stock, which is almost 50% less compared to last year when the lakes had 6.52 lakh million litres, or 45.10% , of water stock by this time.
K S Hosalikar, deputy director-general (western region), IMD, said, “As per the IMD model guidance, there is a possibility of heavy to very heavy rain in parts of Konkan, including Mumbai and around, beginning July 14-15. Therefore, we are expecting increased intensity in rainfall from Tuesday.”
The average rainfall reported in the 12-hour period from 8.30am-8.30pm on Monday by the Colaba and Santacruz observatories was 4mm and 26.8 mm respectively. Between 7am and 7pm on Monday, Kasarvadavli (Thane) recorded 51.5mm of rain, while areas like Airoli in Navi Mumbai reported 47 mm. In Mumbai’s western suburbs, Marol in Andheri logged 40mm, while Mulund reported 46mm.
So far, the total rainfall reported since the beginning of the season by the Colaba and Santacruz observatories has been 1,063mm and 1,103mm respectively, which is above normal in both cases.
Besides, in the first 13 days of July, Santacruz observatory recorded 84% of required rainfall for the entire month. The required rainfall for the month is 840.7mm and so far the Santacruz observatory has reported 708 mm of rain.