Delhi-NCR weather turned pleasant on Sunday morning after overnight rainfall, with monsoon expected to cover the city in the next two days as per Indian Meteorological Department’s forecast.
In what is being called a rare event, monsoon is likely to cover both Delhi and Mumbai around the same time, i.e, within the next two days, the IMD said on Saturday. Speaking of Mumbai, a yellow alert has been sounded by IMD for today.
While monsoon had a slow start, it has now made swift progress and covered several regions including some parts of Maharashtra, entire Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, northeast India, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, most parts of Himachal Pradesh, and some parts of Haryana, as per IMD official.
DS Pai, a senior scientist at the IMD, said monsoon may cover entire Maharashtra and some parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan by tomorrow (Sunday). He said that it represents a new pulse of the monsoon, and rapid progress is expected.
IMD in a statement said conditions are favourable for the further advance of the monsoon over most parts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, more parts of Haryana, including Chandigarh, Delhi, some parts of Gujarat, east Rajasthan and Punjab, during the next two days.
Mumbai Receives Heavy Rain, 2 Drown in Drain; Traffic Snarls Reported
Heavy rainfall hit parts of Mumbai on Saturday, leading to traffic snarls, incidents of trees falling, short circuits and also the death of two persons who were washed away in a drain.
Mumbai suburbs recorded 162 mm of rain till 6.15 am on June 25. Mumbai city recorded 80.5 mm of rain till 6.15 am.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an Orange alert for Raigad and Ratnagiri and a Yellow alert for Palghar, Mumbai, Thane, and Sindhudurg for today.
The two deaths took place in Govandi in the afternoon and the bodies were fished out by fire brigade and police personnel later, an official said.
According to officials, Chembur received 80.04 millimetres of rain through the day, while the figure was 79.76 mm for Vikhroli, 61.98 for Sion, 61.68 for Ghatkopar and 61.25 for Matunga. In a statement issued in the evening, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said 11 trees have fallen due to the rains, while seven incidents of short circuit have been reported till 8pm.
It said the eastern suburbs of the metropolis received 69.86 mm rain, while it was 73.57 mm for the western suburbs. Traffic was diverted to SV Road after Andheri subway got flooded, while movement of vehicles was slow on BD Road, in the vicinity of Mahalaxmi Temple and areas like Asalpha, Sakinaka junction, and Gaffar Khan Road Near Worli Sealink.
Similar scenes were witnessed in Kurla, Santacruz and SV road, while waterlogging was reported from Dadar TT, Sion Road, Tilak Nagar and Dahisar subway.
Many people took to Twitter to share visuals of the situation. Some asked traffic police for updates, while some of them mentioned about traffic snarls at some areas like Ghatkopar, Link Road from Bangur Nagar in Goregaon to Mith Chowki in Malad as well as Pantnagar.
Delayed Monsoon in Central India
Normally, monsoon reaches Kerala by June 1, Mumbai by June 11, and the national capital by June 27. This time, even though significant portion of North India has been covered, monsoon is running slightly delayed for a considerable part of central India, where a significant number of farmers heavily rely on it.
DS Pai attributed Cyclone Biparjoy to the impact on monsoon’s progress over southern India and the adjoining western and central parts of the country.
He said, “Since the system absorbed most of the moisture, the monsoon’s progress along the west coast was slow.” However, the Bay of Bengal branch of the monsoon, responsible for bringing rains to northeast and east India, remained stronger between June 11 and June 23.
Pai attributed this to a low-pressure system that formed over the Bay of Bengal in mid-June and the remnants of cyclone Biparjoy, which aided the monsoon’s advancement over east India.
Pai noted that the Arabian Sea branch of the monsoon is now gaining strength with a low-pressure system developing over the Bay of Bengal.
(With PTI inputs)