Heavy rain not indicative of monsoon end, says IMD

People make their way in the heavy rain at Sion on Tuesday. Pic/Shadab Khan

After several neighbouring districts were on Red alert on Tuesday and Mumbai was on Orange alert, the heavy rain seen in the state in the past few days will most likely reduce from today, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

On Tuesday, several parts of Mumbai and its suburbs received heavy to very heavy rainfall while Palghar, Nashik, Jalgaon and Aurangabad received extremely heavy rainfall. Most of the rainfall experienced in Maharashtra over the past few days has been due to the outer effects of the Cyclone Gulab.

IMD said that the depression over southwest Vidarbha and its adjoining neighbourhood moved west-northwestwards and weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area and lay entered at around 11.30 hrs IST on Tuesday. This was likely to move northwestwards and weaken gradually over the next 24 hours. "The system is likely to emerge into the northeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Gujarat coast around September 30 and there is a likelihood for the system to further intensify into a depression over the northeast Arabian Sea during the subsequent 24 hours," said IMD.

However, after today, the rainfall activity in the state is likely to "slow down drastically," said an IMD official. "As per observations…the direction and movement of the low-pressure area are northwesterly. It will cross from North Madhya Maharashtra and go towards the Gujarat region - because of which the entire rainfall in Maharashtra will be reduced drastically," said the official. The reduction will remain in play for at least two days during which there will be light to moderate rainfall over Konkan, Marathwada, and Madhya Maharashtra.

However, this doesn't indicate the end of the monsoon. "The monsoon withdrawal date has been delayed over the years. We are now seeing the monsoon withdraw from Maharashtra around October 15."