IMD issues ‘red alert’ for Mumbai; predicts heavy to very heavy rainfall

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India meteorological department’s (IMD) regional centre has issued a red alert for Mumbai, predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall in the city on Wednesday.

The country’s financial capital battered the heavy rain showers on Sunday and Monday.

“The MeT office had issued an ‘orange alert’, but it is now been changed to ‘red alert’ for Wednesday because of the favourable synoptic conditions”, Dr. Jayant Sarkar, head of the regional meteorological centre said.

Sarkar told that in the next two days, Mumbai will experience heavy to very heavy rains due to favourable synoptic situations. The offshore trough from south Gujarat coast to Karnataka is expected to increase the intensity of showers.

The second factor is the wind patterns developed over Mumbai and the neighbouring region, Sarkar added.

The Marathwada region is also expected to receive widespread showers till Thursday. After which, the rain intensity is likely to reduce. There is an off-shore trough running between Maharashtra and Karnataka, which generally carries moisture-laden westerly winds from the Arabian Sea to land,

An east-west shear zone cutting across Maharashtra is also adding to the prevailing favourable monsoon conditions.

“These two synoptic systems are leading to very heavy rain over Konkan, Goa and central Maharashtra, especially the Ghat areas,” a Met official said.

Alerts by the IMD are issued in colour coded fashion.

A ‘green’ alert stands for ‘no warning’: no action needs to be taken by the authorities, and the forecast is of light to moderate rain.

A ‘red’ alert stands for ‘warning’, and asks authorities to ‘take action’.

An ‘orange’ alert indicates that the authorities are expected to ‘be prepared’.