Rain, cloudy skies to remain in Mumbai, Thane; El Nino system to get stronger

Mumbai and its surrounding areas experienced overcast skies and moderate rainfall over the past few days, as reported by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The slowdown in rain intensity is due to the strengthening of the El Niño system, which typically weakens monsoon rains in India. The El Niño system is expected to intensify further in the coming months.

While there are no new IMD alerts for the region, rainfall has continued to fall in Mumbai and neighboring districts. On Sunday and Monday morning, Santacruz station recorded 5.8 mm and 1.6 mm of rainfall, respectively. Eastern suburbs received the heaviest rainfall, averaging 8.18 mm, while western suburbs received an average of 5 mm and island city division recorded 1.5 mm.

Mumbai has not experienced heavy rainfall in August, with Santacruz station collecting only 255 mm of rain until August 17. This accounts for 45 percent of Mumbai's average rainfall of 560.8 mm for the month. El Niño, according to the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is developing with a 69 percent chance of becoming stronger than any recorded since 1950.

Despite the El Niño's delay in the onset of monsoon, Mumbai surpassed its monthly average rainfall quota by 66 percent, recording 1,491.9 mm of rainfall between July 1 and 30. Between June and August 17, Mumbai has received 2,160.8 mm of rainfall, which is 90 percent of its average monsoon quota of 2,390.5 mm. Even with moderate rainfall, the total stock in the city's seven lakes, which cater to Mumbai's potable water demands, reached 13.33 lakh million liters or 92.16 percent of the total stock on Monday morning.