September rain inches towards all-time high

MUMBAI: Mumbai has broken its 65-year record for the highest seasonal rainfall, according to data from the BMC and state government. Till Sunday, the city had recorded 3,453.4mm of rainfall though there’s still a fortnight before the official withdrawal of the southwest monsoon . The previous record was in 1954 when it poured 3,452mm rain from June to September, show civic body records and documents from the state relief and rehabilitation department.A document uploaded on the BMC disaster management cell website states: “The city gets southwest monsoon rains beginning June to September-end with peak rains occurring in July. Occasionally, northeast monsoon showers occur in October and November.”It further says, “The maximum annual rainfall ever recorded was 3,452mm in 1954. The highest rainfall recorded in a single day was 944mm on July 26, 2005.”When contacted, BMC officials from the disaster management cell said the details were sourced from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The state relief and rehabilitation website also corroborated this data, but when contacted, K S Hosalikar, deputy director-general (western region), IMD, told TOI that they would have to confirm if the city has surpassed the maximum annual rainfall. Another weather official said they could not confirm the data as the archives section was not operational on Sunday.Heavy rain continued to lash Mumbai through the weekend taking the total rainfall figure for IMD Santacruz observatory to 3,453.4mm, which is 1,393.4mm above normal. Till Sunday 5.30pm, the total rainfall recorded for the month of September was 904.3mm, 15.7mm less than the all-time record rain for the month—920mm rainfall in 1954. This weekend saw intense rain spells in Thane, Palghar and Bhiwandi too. “Palghar district received heavy to very heavy rainfall yesterday night (Saturday) with many stations reporting more than 10cm rainfall. Heavy rainfall warnings in place,” said Hosalikar. Between Saturday and Sunday, Bhiwandi recorded 150mm rainfall, Kalyan 82mm, and the IMD Santacruz observatory 31.4mm. Weathermen attributed the intense rain spells in the areas adjoining Mumbai to an upper air circulation weather system over south Gujarat and its neigbourhood.The IMD has issued a ‘yellow’ alert (heavy rainfall in isolated areas very likely) for Mumbai for Sunday.September rains are likely to continue for the rest of the month with monsoon withdrawal likely to be announced in the first fortnight of October, said Akshay Deoras, an independent meteorologist and a PhD student at the department of meteorology, University of Reading in the UK. “The withdrawal has already been delayed, ideally it should have started from Rajasthan from September 1 which has not happened. Mumbai may get more rains till around September 25-26 at least,” he added.Sridhar Balasubramanian, associate professor, department of mechanical engineering and associate faculty IDP Climate Studies, IITBombay, said upper air circulation is expected to be close to north Konkan. “This may bring in heavy rainfall around September 20-21 for Mumbai too. However, the intensity of rains is still not clear,” he added.