Over 200 mm of rain in six hours paralyzes Mumbai!

A food delivery driver drives through heavy rain in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. (KK Choudhary/TOI, BCCL, Mumbai) — A food delivery driver drives through heavy rain in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra.

(KK Choudhary/TOI, BCCL, Mumbai)

Thursday, September 26: On Wednesday evening, Mumbai was hit by a deluge. Over 200 mm of rain fell in just six hours! The torrential rain caused considerable disruption, leading to severe flooding, traffic disruptions and disruptions to rail and air traffic.

Data from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM)'s Mumbai Mesonet Observations showed that the city's northern Ghatkopar East ward received a staggering 207 mm of rain between 6 pm and midnight. For comparison, this amount is one-tenth of the rainfall the city normally receives during the entire monsoon season from June to September.

Normally, rainfall amounts exceeding 100 mm in a short period of time are classified as cloudburst. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has not officially declared this event as such since the high rainfall amounts were reported in certain areas over a period of 4 to 6 hours.

In a tragic turn of events, two people working at a quarry in Varap village, Kalyan lost their lives due to lightning strikes and a woman drowned near Zenith waterfall. While train services on Central Railways' main and harbour lines faced severe disruptions, Western Railways managed to operate without major problems. However, services on the harbour line were suspended from 9:40 pm due to flooding, creating an emergency-like situation in Mumbai for several hours, aggravated by diversion of 14 flights and four unfortunate deaths.

In response, the IMD upgraded its initial orange alert for Mumbai, Thane and Raigad to a red alert and forecast extremely heavy rain, thunderstorm with lightning and gusty wind in isolated areas by Thursday morning. As a precautionary measure, schools and colleges in Mumbai and Thane will remain closed on Thursday.

Rainfall reports for Wednesday showed that most areas, including the city's base station in Santacruz, were likely to cross the 100 mm mark. Real-time data from IITM showed that districts like Juhu, Mahim, Sion, Airoli and Colaba received nearly 150 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours, with the bulk falling between 5 pm and 10 pm.

The IMD forecast indicates that North Konkan is likely to continue to experience thunderstorms, lightning and isolated cases of extremely heavy rain and gusty winds on Thursday. Heavy to very heavy rain warnings remain in effect for Mumbai, Thane and Raigad.

Mumbai has received 9% more rainfall during the monsoon season so far than the period from June 1 to September 25, totalling 2,221 mm as against the normal 2,046 mm. Authorities are on high alert, continuously monitoring the situation and ensuring that response teams are ready to deal with any further emergencies arising from the heavy rains.

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