Rain to be heavy along the west coast for 72 hours; to pick up in Mumbai

Monsoon rain has been heavy along the west coast for the last five days with many stations recording over 100 mm of rain in a day. A strong Monsoon surge and influx of moist westerly winds from the Arabian Sea helped in reviving the Monsoon in July after June left the entire country with a massive deficit.

According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, heavy rain is likely to continue along the west coast for the next three days. Meanwhile, a short break in Monsoon rain which was observed in Mumbai in the last 48 hours, will also come to an end and rains will increase to become heavy once again from Tuesday.

In the last 24 hours, rain along the west coast reduced from being very heavy (of over 100 mm) to becoming mainly moderate and isolated heavy in some pockets. These were: Mumbai 27 mm, Ratnagiri 95 mm, Panaji 86 mm, Kochi 30 mm, Kottayam 40 mm, Mangalore 84 mm and Karwar 74 mm.

Monsoon may have taken a short break in between, but heavy rain in the last few days on a whole, led to a significant decline in the rain deficit figures in the last one week. Records show, the rain deficit in different sub divisions of South India reduced by over 10% from 9^th July to 14^th July.

In Konkan & Goa the rain deficit reduced from 59% to 39%, in coastal Karnataka it came down from 52% to 36% and in Kerala, it dropped from 44% to 29%.

“Rain is expected to be heavy all along the west coast of peninsular India, including Mumbai, for the next three days, which may further reduce the deficit in the region. But rainfall has to be continuous and heavy for the rainfall figure to be close to normal, i.e. (±19%). So far, good rains in the west coast have helped in bringing down the rain deficit in South India from over 35% to 29%”, said AVM (Retd) G.P Sharma.