Mumbai:Incessant overnight rains threw parts of Mumbai out of gear on Sunday with the city witnessing severe water logging, disruption of local train services and vehicular traffic. The rain fury reminded some Mumbaikars of the the 24-hour rainfall figure of 944 mm on July 26, 2005. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for Mumbai in the backdrop of heavy rains, a BMC official said.
Alerts by the IMD are colour-coded from green to red. 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”. The suburban train services on both Central Railway and Western Railway in the financial capital were suspended due to water logging in the tracks due to the overnight heavy downpour, railway officials said. A sudden change in climatic conditions led to Mumbai witnessing over 100 mm rainfall in six hours, the IMD said in an early morning bulletin. It also changed the rains forecast for the city from orange to red alert.
The IMD said that till 6.30 am on Sunday, Mumbai and adjoining areas received over 120 mm rainfall in preceding 12 hours. Mumbai would receive “heavy to very heavy” rainfall at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places, the IMD said. Extremely heavy rainfall means precipitation of more than 204.5 mm in 24 hours, while heavy rainfall ranges between 115.6 mm to 204.4 mm rainfall, as per the IMD.