Mumbai sweats through monsoon delay, IMD issues yellow alert

Children beat the heat in the Arabian Sea at Bandstand in Bandra West as temperatures touched 35.3°C in Mumbai on June 11. Pic/Ashish Raje

The southwest monsoon, which usually reaches Mumbai by June 11, has been delayed this year, leaving Mumbaikars to endure hot and humid weather for the next few days. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said the monsoon is likely to arrive in Mumbai by June 15. It has already reached the Konkan coast in southern Maharashtra after making landfall in Kerala on June 4. Last year, the monsoon arrived in Mumbai on May 26, its earliest arrival on record.

Heat alert

IMD has issued a yellow alert for hot and humid conditions in Mumbai on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Similar alerts have been sounded for Thane and Palghar. Raigad is under a yellow heat alert, though light to moderate rainfall is also expected there. Nashik and Pune are likely to witness hot and humid weather along with light rain. Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg are under a yellow alert for thundershowers and lightning accompanied by gusty winds.

City temperatures

The Santacruz observatory, whose readings are considered the official figures for Mumbai, recorded a maximum temperature of 35.3 degrees Celsius on Thursday, 2.3 degrees C above normal, with relative humidity touching 70 per cent. At Colaba, temperatures crossed 36 degrees C, 3.5 degrees C above normal, while relative humidity reached 77 per cent.

May 26
Date on which the monsoon arrived in Mumbai last year