Tag: rains

Why has October been so rainy ?

Explained : Although the monsoon season ends in September, a delayed withdrawal and other factors have been causing severe rainfall in several states.

Western disturbances, which begin to have significant interference in local weather over the extreme northern parts of India, commonly cause either rain or snowfall. Since late last week, Ladakh, the higher reaches of Kashmir and Uttarakhand have reported the season’s first snowfall.

Last week, two low-pressure systems were active simultaneously, one each over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal regions. Collectively, these triggered severe weather events over Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha and West Bengal.

Delayed monsoon withdrawal

The four-month southwest monsoon season normally withdraws completely by early October. During the withdrawal phase, it causes thunderstorms and localised heavy rainfall.

This year, however, the withdrawal began only on October 6 against a normal of September 17. So far, the monsoon has withdrawn completely from the Western, Northern, Central and Eastern India regions. But it remains active over the southern peninsula. Thus, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have had significant rainfall during the last 10 days.

Until Monday, the monsoon had not withdrawn from Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, parts of West Bengal and Odisha and entire southern peninsular India.

“As there has been a delay in the southwest monsoon withdrawal, good rainfall has continued over Odisha, the Northeast and south India,” said Mrutyunjay Mohaptra, director general, India Meteorological Department (IMD).



Normally, by mid-October, the monsoon winds reverse their direction of flow from the southwest to the northeast.

“Even though the easterlies are beginning to replace the westerlies, the former is yet strengthen and fully establish. The easterly winds indicate the arrival of the northeast monsoon,” said D Sivanand Pai, head, Climate Research and Services, IMD, Pune.

This year, conditions for the onset of the northeast monsoon are expected to develop around October 25.

Extreme rains

For most days last week, at least two low-pressure systems remained active along the east and west coasts and over central India, bringing rains over large parts of the country.

Delhi received 87.9mm (over a 24-hour period) between Sunday and Monday, making it the fourth wettest October day for the national capital since 1901. The month of October has also been the fourth wettest so far. It has received 94.6 mm rains this month so far, which is next only to the 238.2 mm it received in 1954, the 236.2 mm in 1956, and 186.9 mm in the entire Octobers of 1910.

Likewise, Balasore in Odisha recorded 210mm in a day and it was only the second such occasion in a decade for this month.

While Tamil Nadu normally receives good rainfall between October and December, mainly during the northeast monsoon, Coimbatore (110mm) witnessed its wettest October day in a decade even before the onset of the northeast monsoon.

The Western Ghats, northeast and central India are known as high-rainfall receiving regions. However, in recent years, it has been noted that intense spells during a short time span are increasingly becoming frequent.

“Due to climate change, there is definitely a rising frequency in the extreme weather events round the year. But these specific occurrences of heavy to very heavy rains that we are seeing right now can be attributed to the formation of low-pressure systems,” said Mohaptra.

“Whenever there is a low-pressure system, depending on its strength, it results in heavy to very heavy rainfall activity. In addition, when a low-pressure system interacts with western disturbance, further intense rainfall occurs,” he said.

Extreme rainfall in Kerala

A low-pressure system that formed in the east-central Arabian Sea moved and sustained over Kerala between October 15 and17.

Simultaneously, another low-pressure system prevailed over the north Andhra Pradesh coast and southern Odisha. The interaction between them strengthened the southwest winds which brought extreme rainfall over central and southern Kerala during the last weekend.

At some places in Idukki, Ernakulam, Kollam and Kottayam districts, the 24-hour rainfall was over 200 mm. As many of these districts are hilly and covered with dense forests, the water run-off triggered landslides and mudslides.

Rainy days ahead

The low-pressure system that affected Kerala has weakened now. But a similar system is still active over central India, because of which northern India is likely to received good rainfall this week.

Heavy rainfall events are predicted over Western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh for Tuesday, with a ‘red’ alert having been issued by IMD for these regions.


Another low pressure — located over Northern Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal — is active and its interaction with the moist easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal is expected to bring heavy rain over West Bengal, Odisha, Sikkim, and Bihar until Wednesday. The maximum impact in terms of extremely heavy rain (more than 204 mm in 24 hours) is likely over some places in West Bengal and Sikkim on Tuesday.

Written by : Ananya Kaushal

Heavy rains in Mumbai

Every year Mumbai experiences days where there is heavy rains which creates a pause in the life of people for sometime. like the local trains becomes late, or the railway tracks are submerged inside the water. Every year we hear the news of the Sion railway station filled with water and people are struck in many different places. The conditions never get better. Mumbai rain always brings out some difficulties with it, it clogs the drainage or sometimes even some bridges falls due this heavy rains. This year also the history was repeated. For three consecutive days it is been raining and the Indian meteoritical department has warned that the heavy rains will continue for next two days. There would be rain and thunder shower in places like Mumbai, Mumbai suburban, Palghar, Pune, Raigad and Thane. Also yellow alert has been declared in isolated places of these districts. Mumbai police has requested citizens to be away from the seashore and stay at home if possible.They have also urged the fisherman at Maharashtra to Goa coast to cancel their fishing venture for today.

The Brihan Mumbai Muncipal coorporation that is the BMC has said that a high tide of 4.67 metres is also expected at one thirty at the noon.  High tide is the highest elevation of water, that means if you stand there the moon will be directly over you, jokes apart don’t go and stand there to experience it, a very dangerous adventure to take. The IMD has also said there there would be strong winds of  fifty to sixty kilometre per metre.

As the after effects of this rain can be seen already, though because of this pandemic lockdown there is no effect to people’s life in the magnitude that would effect till last year.

Water logging has been reported in many places like  Chembur, Vadala,Dharavi, Andheri, Hindmata junction, Khar subway, Milan subway and Dahisar subway. These are the main places of residential areas in Mumbai and every year there is this problem arising but there is no solution to these. These areas are more prone because they are relatively low lying areas in Mumbai and they tend to get flooded easily every time.

The Powai lake has started overflowing in the morning, because of which there is flooding in the road. The Colaba weather station in Mumbai recorded one sixty nine milimetres of rain during the last twenty four hours. Shanties in Bandra near the Sea hit the high tides.

The places in the Interior of Maharashtra has also recieved a fair amount of rains. In Navi Mumbai and Thane there was very intense rain fall and there was a record of 200 mili metre rain today.  A Vacant and stand alone building in Thane west fell shortly after the rains started. There were some trees branches falling which lead to a traffic jam in many parts of Mumbai.

So that is the record of the Mumbai records yet , thankfully there is no case of injuries or casualties but the weather department has warned about heavy rains in next 2 days so take care of yourself.