The monsoon finally hit the southern parts of Maharashtra on Tuesday with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in Pune confirming its arrival on the “western region’s hub”.
Dr Medha Kolhe, deputy director general weather forecast at IMD Pune said, “The monsoon arrived in the southern parts of Maharashtra a day in advance. On Tuesday, it reached regions like south Konkan and Satara in south-central Maharashtra.”
However, from here on, it will take another three to four days for the monsoon to advance due to upper cyclonic circulation in the Arabian Sea. “Due to the upper air cyclonic circulation the monsoon’s progress is going to be hindered. However, after three to four days when the upper cyclonic circulation in the Arabian Sea clears it will advance further.”
The monsoon has already been stalled once this year, in the Andaman Sea when it had not even hit the Indian subcontinent. “The monsoon had hit the Andaman Sea on May 17 — three days before the normal date of onset. It was stuck at the Andaman Sea and moved only a little further in the Bay of Bengal till May 30.
It moved in leaps thereafter,” said Dr Khole.
While the monsoon should ideally hit Mumbai on June 10 after hitting Kerala on June 1, it generally reaches the city after the second week of June. In 2011, the monsoon had hit Mumbai on June 5; last year, it had arrived on June 17.
On Tuesday, the Mumbai IMD recorded no rainfall in the city, but, the temperature did register a minor dip, i.e. of a degree. Colaba recorded 33.4 degrees Celsius, while Santa Cruz recorded 33.7 degrees celsius. Along with the temperature, humidity too came down on Tuesday, with Colaba recording 59 per cent and Santa Cruz recording 66 per cent, which was a reasonable dip from Monday.
As for the city, the Mumbai Met department has predicted “light rainfall and thundershower” in Mumbai and neighbourhood and cloudy weather.
In addition, Nagpur received pre-monsoon showers on Tuesday, bringing much-needed relief from the hot and humid weather.