Mumbai records its highest 24-hour October rain in a decade

Mumbai: Intense overnight thunderstorms with gusty winds and continuous rain led to Mumbai’s highest 24-hour October rainfall in 10 years.

The weather bureau has said the entire Konkan coast, including Mumbai, is expected to receive heavy to very heavy rain with the possibility of extremely heavy rain on Thursday.

Due to intermittent spells of heavy rain, Mumbai recorded its second highest monthly rainfall (144.8mm) in a decade. The highest was in 2012 when 197.7mm of rainfall was recorded in October.

The Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, recorded 86.5mm of rain between 8.30am Wednesday and 8.30am Thursday, with a majority of the rainfall recorded overnight (8.30pm to 8.30am). Prior to this, the decade’s highest one-day October rainfall was recorded in 2011 (October 13) at 71mm. The all-time 24-hour record was October 4, 1988 at 140.8mm.

Between 8.30am Wednesday and 8.30am Thursday, the Colaba weather station, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 115.8mm of rain. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) did not have past rain data for Colaba for October but said this was one of the highest 24-hour rainfall ever recorded during the month.

“The city and suburbs both witnessed intense thunderstorm activity through the night with a dense cloud cover over Mumbai, located 10km from the ground, leading to widespread rain activity. Early morning commuters are likely to face severe difficulties due to waterlogging in low-lying areas,” KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD, said.

The maximum rainfall was recorded at Worli (110.8mm) followed by Navi Mumbai (101mm), and Mazgaon (97.2mm). The rest of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region recorded rainfall between 50mm and 85mm over the past 24 hours.

Hosalikar added that intense cloud cover was observed off the coast of Mumbai on Thursday morning. “The well-marked low pressure area is now located over south central Maharashtra and around south Konkan. It is very likely to move west-northwestwards and emerge into the Arabian Sea off the Maharashtra coast, and intensify into a depression over Arabian Sea over the next 48 hours,” said Hosalikar.

“Intense rain is expected during the evening and late at night, similar to Wednesday,” said Hosalikar.