With 20 more days left for August and almost two more monsoon months remaining, Colaba has already covered half of the annual average rainfall. Santa Cruz too is on its way to reach the 50 per cent mark of annual average rainfall.
Till Wednesday evening, Colaba had received 1,151 mm of rainfall since the start of the season, which is about 52 per cent of the annual average of 2,220 mm. And Santa Cruz recorded 1,158.7 mm — about 45 per cent of the annual average of 2,598 mm.
“The rainfall has been definitely above normal this year. Since July and August are the main rainfall months, we can expect more rainfall,” said N.Y. Apte, deputy director general of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Mumbai.
“Monsoon is a complicated global system, which depends on parameters such as the jet stream effect or the Indian Ocean dipole effect. Sometimes even El Nino affects the monsoon negatively,” Mr Apte said.
“When two-three of these parameters work favourably, the monsoon is normal for that particular year. If more parameters work favourably, then the monsoon is more than normal,” said Mr Apte.
The showers that started on Tuesday night, continued all through Wedn-esday.
V.K. Rajeev, director of weather forecast, IMD, Mumbai said, “A low pressure area has formed over Orissa, which is strengthening the westerly winds. Moreover, the offshore trough stretching from the Gujarat Coast to the Kerala Coast too is strengthening. Together, these conditions are causing the heavy rainfall.”
For the next few days, the city is likely to receive more rainfall. “There are likely to be heavy showers over the whole Konkan and Goa region, including Mumbai for the next two days,” Mr Rajeev said.