Thursday's deluge seems to have washed away the intermediate dry spell that the city had seen recently. According to weather experts, the city recorded the month's second highest rainfall last Thursday.


A car ploughs through a flooded street in the central suburb
of Bhandup, as some residents make their way on foot

According to measurements recorded by the city's weather department in duration between Thursday 8.30 am and Friday 8.30 am, maximum rainfall was experienced in the latter half.

Of the 97.8 mm rain that was recorded at Santacruz in this time period, 92.9 mm was recorded in the latter 12 hours. A similar pattern was observed in Colaba, which registered 66 mm rainfall in the 24-hour duration, of which 62.5 mm was recorded in the latter half.

"Thursday's downpour was the second highest of the month, in terms of volume of rainfall, ranking second to that which was experienced on July 8, measuring 162.8 mm," said an official from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Western Region.

Claiming that Thursday's downpour had been a blessing to all, RK Rajeev, director of IMD, Mumbai said, "Due to an upper-air cyclonic circulation in Gujarat, the state has been experiencing heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours.
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There is no cause for concern, as these are nothing more than cyclonic circulations. Heavy cloud movement has been observed offshore in the states of Gujarat and Karnataka. The heavy rainfall will persist for 2-3 days.
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The Konkan region will be lashed by heavy rainfall."

Another official at the IMD said that the month of July had been comparatively dry in the city this year, compared to that received in preceding years.

The average rainfall in 2009, 2010, and 2011 has been 1,142 mm, 1,250.4 mm, and 1,097.7 mm respectively.
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He said, "In the next two days we expect the rainfall levels to cross 1,100 mm. The temperature has also risen by 1 degree Celsius," said the official.

15 trees collapse
The chief casualties of the heavy rains that lashed Mumbai on Thursday were 15 trees, which collapsed in the deluge. Confirming the same, Deputy Municipal Commiss-ioner (DMC) Suhas Karvande said that three, seven and five trees had been uprooted in the city proper, the eastern and the western suburbs respectively.

"The trees were uprooted due to heavy rainfall and strong winds on Thursday. No persons were injured. Considerably fewer numbers of trees have fallen this year," he said. He added, "A team of junior tree officers has already been appointed to prune trees which are in need of immediate attention."

City lakes filling up
The BMC is on tenterhooks each year, calculating rainfall levels to ensure that the Mumbai's lakes accumulate enough rainwater to meet the city's water demands for the approaching summer. Thursday's deluge, however, set their worries to rest, with water levels in two lakes rising to the required levels.

Water levels at a few other lakes are also expected to reach the desired height within the first week of August, provided the monsoon gathers force. The Modak Sagar lake, which usually overflows by the second week of July every year, hadn't even reached the desired BMC level this year.

On Thursday, however, both Modak sagar and the Tulsi lakes rose to expected levels of 163.16 m and 139.26 m respectively.

Some of the other lakes of the city, such as Tansa, Vihar, Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa are just a few metres away from meeting the highest expected lake levels.
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"The lakes have already crossed the lower expected levels. Some more rainfall will enable them to reach the highest levels as well," said an official.