MUMBAI: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for Saturday, forecasting heavy rain at isolated places. From Sunday, it predicted light to moderate rainfall activity.
The 1,000 mm mark for rainfall in September was breached on Friday, with the total settling at 1,060.6 mm by 8.30 pm.
The morning brought heavy rain and localised water-logging in many areas, including Vile Parle, Sion and Gandhi Market in King Circle.
From 8.30 am to 8.30 pm, rainfall recorded at the Colaba observatory of the IMD was 60.4 mm and at the Santacruz observatory, 49 mm.
Some days ago, rain for September crossed the previous record for highest rainfall, 920 mm in 1954.
The average September rain is 327.1 mm, a figure that was crossed this year in the first four days of the month.
Weathermen said the next significant rain spell could be expected near September 25.
"Rain activity will reduce for the next two to three days over Mumbai and suburbs as the cyclonic circulation which was over North Madhya Maharashtra has moved towards East Arabian Sea and intensified into low pressure area," Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, meteorology & climate change, Skymet Weather Services Pvt Ltd, said. "It will further intensify and move away from Indian coast. Therefore, rain activity will gradually reduce."
Palawat said the spell expected around September 25 would not be very heavy as the weather system may not be very severe. "We think the heavy rain episodes for Mumbai are over, although very intense localised spells could occur," Palawat said.
For the overall
monsoon season, the rainfall recorded by the Colaba observatory stood at 2,543.6 mm, which is 624.3 mm above normal. The Santacruz observatory recorded 3,557.1, which is 1,455.7 mm above normal.