Cloudy skies, rain to continue till July 4

Mumbai: Heavy rain continued to lash the city on Wednesday with 77mm rainfall recorded by the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) base weather station in Santacruz in eight hours ending 5:30pm.

Despite the monsoon’s record delayed arrival this year, nearly two weeks after its normal onset, heavy rains this week are likely to nudge the city towards closing its rainfall deficit for June. The city has since June 1 received 458mm of rain, against the 526.3mm average for the month.

According to the IMD’s seven day forecast for the city, overcast skies and intermittently heavy and moderately intense showers are on the anvil till at least July 4, after which there may be some respite from the rain.

However, less severe weather is expected to prevail from Thursday onward with the IMD downgrading the city’s ‘orange’ category weather alert to a ‘yellow’ category warning over the next five days.

Dahisar in Mumbai and Bhayandar in Thane district were among the most affected areas by rain on Wednesday, recording 154.5mm and 128mm rainfall, respectively.

Juhu airport received 71.5mm of rain, while the IMD’s coastal weather station in Colaba also recorded 77mm of rain in the same duration.