After intense showers throughout the day, Mumbai registered its wettest July ever on Wednesday with the month so far witnessing a record 1557.8 mm rainfall, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The previous wettest July on record was in 2020 when 1,502 mm rainfall was logged by the IMD`s Santacruz observatory (representative of Mumbai`s suburbs).

“From July 1 to July 26, 2023 morning 0830 hours (8.30 am), Santacruz (observatory) had recorded 1,433 mm. So today, this record for wettest July has been broken at 2030 (8.30 pm) on July 26, 2023, with the Santacruz observatory recording a total of 1557.8 mm so far,” the IMD said.

Incessant heavy rains lashed Mumbai throughout the day, prompting the weather office to upgrade the `orange` alert to `red` with effect from Wednesday night till Thursday afternoon.

The red alert, predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places, is valid from 8 pm on Wednesday till July 27 afternoon and covers Mumbai city and suburban areas.

Meanwhile, three lakes supplying water to Mumbai have started overflowing, with two reaching their desired water levels early Wednesday morning. Vihar lake started overflowing at 12.48 am while Tansa began brimming over at 4.35 am. The total water stock was 58.93 per cent on Wednesday morning, which is 8.52 lakh million litres. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will take a call on rolling back its water cut next week.

Since last week, the catchment areas of lakes have been receiving a good amount of rainfall. The Tulsi lake overflowed on July 20. However, due to the delay in the arrival of the monsoon, there is a shortage of water stock in lakes compared to the past two years.

In 2021, the water stock was 66.63 per cent or 9.64 lakh million litres while in 2022 it was 12.67 lakh million litres or 87.56 per cent on July 26. The total capacity of all lakes is 14.47 lakh million litres. BMC officials said catchment areas are receiving good rainfall but the water stock is less than that recorded in the past two years. 

“We will wait for one more week before taking a decision on the water cut. If there is a good increase in the water stock, we can cancel the 10 per cent water cut,” an official said. Last year, the Vihar and Tansa lakes began overflowing on August 5 and July 14, respectively.

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