Localised showers lash Mumbai's suburbs as city get rains after 3 weeks

Localised thundershowers on Sunday lashed western suburbs of Mumbai, as the city witnessed rains after a gap of nearly three weeks.

According to officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), such localised rain due to intense heat is a common phenomenon during this time.

After the first week of August, Mumbai did not receive showers. There were occasional drizzles, but too less to be recorded, an IMD official said.

"On Sunday morning, rains lashed only the western suburbs, that too north of Bandra till Borivali. The showers were intense in some pockets. Colaba in south Mumbai and the eastern suburbs hardly received any showers compared to the western suburbs. Such type of localised showers are not part of the southwest monsoon rains, the official said.

Between 8.30 am on Saturday and 5.30 am on Sunday, the Santacruz observatory, which is representative of the western suburbs, recorded only 13.8 mm rainfall.

"When the southwest monsoon is weak, intense heat could lead to such a situation and some pockets receive short spells of showers, the official said.