Mumbai City reels under season’s heaviest rain in 24 hrs, Met says respite ahead

The city received this season's highest one-day rainfall between Tuesday and Wednesday. Mumbai received more than 200mm of rainfall within the 24-hour span. In fact, Colaba received about 10% of its annual average rainfall in a single day. 

    Between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, Colaba recorded 218.6mm, whereas Santa Cruz received 215.6mm. Colaba has already covered 78% of its annual average rainfall of 2,220mm. Santa Cruz on the other hand, has covered 73% of 2,598mm, its annual average. With more than two months of the monsoon remaining, the rainfall seems likely to exceed normal figures this year. 
    "Monsoon is a complicated global system which depends on parameters such as the jetstream effect or the Indian Ocean dipole effect. Sometimes even El Nino affects it negatively," said N Y Apte, deputy director-general of the Indian Meteorological Department, Mumbai. "If two-three of these parameters work favourably, the monsoon is normal in that particular year. If more parameters work favourably, then the rainfall will be higher than normal," said Apte. 
    Mumbaikars got a relief when the heavy rainfall petered out to a light drizzle on Wednesday. Between morning and evening, Colaba had recorded only 14.6mm, while Santa Cruz had received 18.8mm of rainfall. Though a far cry from the meteorological department's warning, the city received some heavy showers in the morning. The department on Wednesday downgraded the rainfall warning. "Our forecast now says there will be heavy rainfall in a few places for the next 36 hours," said V K Rajeev, director of weather forecast, IMD, Mumbai. The department said though climatic conditions remain the same, they are not as potent as predict "The offshore trough stretching from the Gujarat coast to the Kerala coast and the pressure gradients on the western coast still persist. However, they are not as strong as we thought them to be on this side," said Rajeev. 
    "Now there will be heavy rainfall at the Gujarat side of the coast, while the city will see fewer spells," said Rajeev.

CRUSHED: A huge tree fell on three cars near MLA hostel at Churchgate