Starting December 26, several districts of Maharashtra are slated to receive light to moderate showers and thunderstorms with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issuing a yellow alert in the districts. Even as Mumbai experienced overcast skies on Monday and its coldest December day-time temperature since 2021, no alerts have been issued for Mumbai thus far.
For the fourth consecutive day, Mumbai continued to log below normal day-time temperatures as the maximum temperatures dipped to 28.7 degrees, which is 3.5 degrees below the normal at the IMD’s Santacruz recording station on Monday afternoon. Data showed that this was Mumbai’s lowest maximum temperature for the month of December since 2021, when the day-time temperatures dropped to 24.8 degrees on December 2.
Amid the city experiencing cloudy skies, the IMD has stated that Mumbai will continue to reel under ‘Partly cloudy sky with haze’ throughout the week, (until December 29) at least.
However, showers are likely to elude the city at a time when the weather bureau has forecast light to moderate rain alongside thunderstorms in several pockets.
In its bulletin, IMD has issued a yellow alert in districts such as Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Nashik, Sambhajinagar amongst others between December 26 and December 27. The bulletin stated that the districts are slated to experience, “Thunderstorms accompanied with lightning, light to moderate rainfall & gusty winds (30- 40kmph) at isolated places.” Meanwhile, isolated districts like Pune, Akola, Washim Amravati have been placed under a yellow alert for December 27.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Sunil Kamble, director of IMD Mumbai said, “After December 26, we are expecting an interaction of winds which is expected to bring thunderstorms and showers in the region. While there may be a possibility of rain, we will have to wait and watch to determine whether the interaction of winds will impact rains in the Mumbai region. Currently, Mumbai has not been placed under a yellow alert but we will have a clearer picture in the next day or two.”
Maintaining that rains will elude the entire coastal belt of the state, Mahesh Palawat of Skymet Weather Services said that the phenomenon is a result of a system over Madhya Pradesh. “There is a cyclonic circulation over the southwest MP region which is pulling in moisture from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Owing to this moisture, between December 27 and 28, most of Maharashtra will receive rain. However, the coastal region like Mumbai, Dahanu etc. may remain unimpacted barring some isolated rainfall,” he explained.
Meanwhile, even as the city is experiencing cooler days, it is experiencing warmer nights with above normal temperatures. On Monday, data showed that minimum temperatures remained at 20.4 degrees and 22 degrees at Santacruz and Colaba observatories respectively.
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