Mumbai: July began on a wet note with the city recording over 300mm of rainfall in the first two days, which is nearly 37% of the month’s average rainfall quota of 855.7mm.IMD’s Santacruz observatory, which is representative of Mumbai, recorded 204.6mm of rainfall in the 24-hour period ending Thursday 8.30am, just crossing the threshold for “extremely heavy rainfall”, the highest category in IMD’s classification. In the 24-hour period ending Wednesday 8.30am, the Santacruz facility had logged 96.3mm of rainfall.IMD’s Colaba observatory recorded 158.2mm rain between Wednesday 8.30am and Thursday 8.30am, placing south Mumbai in the “very heavy rainfall” category.Rainfall recordings from automatic weather stations across the city during the same period showed that Juhu logged the highest rainfall at 205mm, closely followed by Santacruz at 204.6mm and Vikhroli at 192.5mm. Other areas that received heavy showers included Bandra (183.5mm), Ram Mandir (178mm), Byculla (171.5mm), Tata Power, Chembur (165.5mm), Sion (163.5mm), Vidyavihar (162mm) and Colaba (158.2mm).The upcoming weekend is likely to see heavy rains with the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region either under an ‘orange’ or ‘red’ alert. IMD had issued a nowcast warning indicating a ‘red’ alert for Mumbai at 7.45am on Thursday, with an ‘orange’ alert in place till Sunday. For Thane, a ‘red’ alert has been issued for Saturday.Water stocks in lakes have also shown a slight increase, climbing to 8.1% of the total required quantum of 14.47 lakh million litres from nearly 7.2% on Wednesday. Civic officials said a review of the 10% water cut was to be taken on June 30, but a decision has been put on hold for now. “As continuous rainfall is seen in the city and also catchment areas, the administration has decided to wait before taking any further decision,” said an official.Meanwhile, rainwater flooded the road outside the Sewri Christian cemetery as well as part of the compound and office on Thursday. Residents claimed the graves were at risk of flooding too. The road was recently concretised.The ceiling slab of a shop collapsed in the old Swadeshi Market near Kalbadevi that is awaiting redevelopment. Traders claimed this was the third monsoon mishap in as many days.
