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The low-pressure area that formed over North Bay of Bengal on Tuesday has driven the monsoon into a vigorous (most active) phase. It has already brought heavy to very heavy rain, interspersed with extremely heavy rain, over parts of East India, thanks to proximity to the system, and over West India due to monsoon flows being attracted by it all the way from the Arabian Sea.
In addition, a cyclonic circulation each was spotted on Tuesday evening moving over South Gujarat and not too far off over South Pakistan accompanied by a western disturbance. This has already created a tinderbox-like situation over the larger West India, covering Gujarat, South-West Rajasthan, West Madhya Pradesh and West Maharashtra (including Konkan and Mumbai).
Monsoon flows strengthen
As a consequence of these meteorological features, the south-westerly monsoon flows have strengthened over the Arabian Sea with wind speeds reaching 50-60 km/hour along and off the Konkan coast at surface. Widespread rainfall with scattered heavy to very heavy falls and isolated extremely heavy falls would continue over Konkan and Goa (including Mumbai) till Thursday and over the Ghats over Madhya Maharashtra till Wednesday, and may reduce thereafter.
An India Meteorological Department (IMD) update located the low-pressure area on Tuesday evening to the North Bay of Bengal off the West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts. It is likely to become more marked (intensified) by Wednesday, and get a move westwards to Central India (covering Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh) during the next two days.
Widespread rainfall with isolated very heavy to extremely heavy falls is likely over Gujarat until Thursday, over Odisha on Tuesday, and over Chhattisgarh and East Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. Isolated very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall is also likely over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and South Interior and Coastal Karnataka during the next 4-5 days, said an IMD outlook.
Drenches Mumbai overnight
The 24 hours ending Tuesday saw very heavy to extremely heavy rain (in cm) over Mumbai (Santa Cruz)-26; Mumbai (Colaba)-25; Mahabaleshwar19; Ratnagiri-16; Matheran and Chandbali-9; Mormugao, Karwar, Honawar and Palakkad-8 each; and Veraval, Dahanu and Mangaluru-6 each. Heavy to very heavy falls were recorded at isolated places over Madhya Maharashtra, Konkan and Goa, while it was heavy at isolated places over Coastal Karnataka and Kerala during this period.
Forecast for Wednesday indicated the following: Heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls at isolated places over Konkan and Goa; heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls at isolated places over Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, East Madhya Pradesh and Madhya Maharashtra; heavy to very heavy rainfall over West Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Coastal Karnataka, South Interior Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Heavy rainfall is forecast over East Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Vidarbha, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Marathawada and Telangana on Wednesday. Strong winds (reaching 50-60 km/hour) may lash the Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Lakshadweep coasts. Squally weather (50-60 km/hour) is likely over the Gujarat coast and wind speeds may reach 40-50 km/hour along the Odisha and West Bengal coasts. Fishermen are advised not to venture into these areas.
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