Overnight thunderstorm leads to heavy rain across Mumbai
The Santacruz weather observatory, which is representative of suburban Mumbai, recorded 55.8 millimetres (mm) of rainfall
There were cloud cover, loud claps of thunder, lightning and moderate to heavy showers between Saturday evening and early Sunday morning in the densely populated Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
The weather bureau had issued a yellow alert for Saturday and predicted thunderstorms during evening and also late at night.
On Saturday, a dense cloud cover enveloped at around 5:30 pm onwards over parts of Kalyan, followed by rainfall at isolated places in Navi Mumbai, Thane and suburban Mumbai.
South Mumbai also recorded an intense spell of rainfall at isolated places and accompanied by a wind speed up to 35 kilometres per hour (kmph).
Also Read: ‘Thundershowers with lightning, gusty winds likely in Mumbai over the weekend’: IMD
The Santacruz weather observatory, which is representative of suburban Mumbai, recorded 55.8 millimetres (mm) of rainfall.
While Colaba weather observatory, which is representative of south Mumbai, recorded 15 mm of rainfall.
Many areas in the suburbs, south-central Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan received overnight rainfall measuring between 70 mm and 100 mm.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the thunderstorms were the signs of the withdrawal of south-west monsoon over the region and were normal during this time of the year.
“Severe weather with intense lightning and loud thunder was recorded for two hours on Saturday evening. Isolated areas across the MMR reported moderate to heavy rainfall. This was followed by another round of thunderstorms late at night on Saturday and early Sunday morning,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general (DG), western region, IMD.
“The thunderstorms were short-lived, but the Konkan coast and interior Maharashtra can expect similar weather on Sunday as well,” he added.
A location-wise break-up of heavy rainfall for over 15 hours – between 5:30 pm on Saturday and 8:30 am on Sunday -- showed that maximum rainfall was recorded at Malad at 106.6 mm, followed by Dahisar (103 mm), Goregaon (94.5 mm), Mira Road (84.5 mm), Borivali (76.8 mm), Andheri (72.8 mm), Bhandup (69 mm) and Powai (64 mm).
Thundershowers led to cool weather over the city, which had recorded temperature over a degree Celsius (C) above normal since October 1.
The overnight rainfall brought the temperature down by a degree Celsius on Sunday morning.
The minimum temperature in south Mumbai and the suburbs was 24 and 22.6 degrees C, respectively, on Sunday morning.
Mumbai and its suburbs could expect light rainfall accompanied by thundershowers at isolated places on Sunday evening or late at night, the weather bureau said.