Mumbai Weather Forecast: IMD Issues Yellow Alert For Aug. 21, Moderate Showers Expected From Friday

Several areas in Mumbai will continue to witness heavy rainfall until Thursday, with conditions expected to normalise in the following days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday. Extremely heavy rainfall in the past four days has brought the city to a standstill, severely disrupting daily life.

The weather agency issued an orange alert for Wednesday, warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places across Mumbai. The IMD has issued a yellow alert for Thursday as heavy rain is expected in many areas of the city.

From Friday onwards, the rainfall intensity is expected to subside in Mumbai with moderate showers between Aug. 22 and Aug 24, as per the IMD forecast.

Between Aug. 16 and 20, Mumbai’s Santacruz weather station recorded a staggering 875 mm of rainfall, according to IMD data. During this time, Colaba station received 394 mm of rainfall. The agency had issued a red alert for the city on Monday and Tuesday as extremely heavy rainfall continued, leading to severe waterlogging on roads and major disruptions to train and flight services.

"In the Brihanmumbai (Mumbai city and suburbs) area, extremely heavy rainfall occurred over the past two to three days. In some places, unprecedented rainfall, exceeding 350 millimetres in a short period, poured down," the organisation said on Wednesday.

The impact of the continuous downpour spilled over into Wednesday, with waterlogged streets and partially disrupted train services still affecting daily life. Several leading airlines, including IndiGo and SpiceJet, also urged their passengers to plan ahead, warning that adverse weather conditions could continue to impact services.

The seven water-supplying lakes in Mumbai also witnessed a significant surge in total storage levels, with four lakes overflowing, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data on Wednesday morning showed. Tulsi and Vihar lakes became the latest to start overflowing after reaching their peak capacity due to the incessant rainfall in the last few days. Both lakes have received more than 500 mm rainfall each in the last 48 hours. 

Modak Sagar and Tansa lakes, which had started overflowing in July but later saw a dip in water levels, have once again reached their peak capacity, according to the BMC data. Other lakes are also above 90%, taking the combined capacity of all seven lakes to over 95% of the total capacity of 14.47 lakh million litres.  

• Aug. 20: Heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely

• Aug. 21: Heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely

• Aug. 22: Generally cloudy sky with moderate rain expected

• Aug. 23: Generally cloudy sky with moderate rain expected

• Aug. 24: Moderate rainfall expected

• Aug. 25: Rainfall likely in Mumbai

• Aug. 26: Rainfall likely in Mumbai