The southwest monsoon will be active over Maharashtra this week and bring some heavy rain spells during its final month for this year.
Rainfall activity has picked up over Maharashtra since Thursday with Konkan and Marathwada subdivisions continuing to receive heavy rain.
On Sunday, some heavy spells (24 hours) recorded here were reported from Beed – 150 mm, Jalna – 120 mm, Aurangabad and Latur – 110 mm, Jalgaon and Osmanabad – 100 mm, Sindhudurg – 90 mm, Ratnagiri, Thane and Solapur – 80 mm and Raigad – 70 mm.
The revival of the monsoon will be facilitated by the formation of a low pressure system in the east-central Bay of Bengal, most likely on Monday. As this system moves westwards overland, enhanced rainfall is forecast over Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and southern peninsular India, including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Moreover, the monsoon trough will remain to the south of its normal position this week, bringing more rainfall over central India regions.
The India Meteorological Department has issued an orange alert (‘be prepared’) of heavy rainfall (64.5 mm to 115.5 mm in 24-hours) over Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts till Tuesday whereas Palghar, Thane, Mumbai, Raigad, Nashik, Pune, Satara and Kolhapur remain on the same alert till Thursday.
With improvement in rainfall activity last week, many rainfall deficient districts along northern Marathwada and Madhya Maharashtra have now turned positive. Nandurbar (-43 per cent), Gondia (-27 per cent), Amravati (-25 per cent) and Gadchiroli (- 24 per cent) are the only rainfall deficient districts as on Sunday.
This season, Maharashtra has recorded normal rainfall measuring 900.1 mm.