Photos: India's monsoon lashes Mumbai as rains arrive early
Heavy rains lashed Mumbai after the annual monsoon arrived in India's financial capital nearly two weeks before schedule, according to weather forecasters.
The downpours, which have brought relief from high temperatures and are welcomed by farmers for their crops, also wreak havoc in urban areas every year by flooding transport infrastructure. Typically, such monsoon rains are expected across the southwestern state of Maharashtra in early June.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of 'extremely heavy rainfall' in Mumbai, while city authorities have issued a red alert in place until Tuesday.
'All citizens are advised to stay indoors and avoid travel unless necessary,' the city authorities said in a statement, urging people to 'kindly cooperate'.
In a statement, the IMD said the rains had reached Mumbai on Monday, '16 days earlier than usual', with the monsoon normally expected to arrive about 11 June. This, the agency noted, is the earliest onset for nearly a quarter of a century.
'This marks the earliest monsoon advancement over Mumbai during the period 2001-2025,' it said.
Across Maharashtra, regional IMD chief Shubhangi Bhute confirmed it was the earliest arrival of the monsoon in 14 years.
South Asia has experienced rising temperatures in recent years, accompanied by shifting weather patterns, but scientists remain uncertain about the precise effect of global warming on the region's highly complex monsoon system.
The southwest monsoon, a colossal sea breeze, delivers between 70 and 80 percent of South Asia's annual rainfall between June and September each year. It is triggered when seasonal heat warms the subcontinent's landmass, causing air to rise and drawing in cooler winds from the Indian Ocean, releasing huge volumes of rain.
The monsoon is crucial for agriculture and, by extension, the livelihoods of millions of farmers and overall food security. But it also brings annual destruction in the form of landslides and floods.
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Photos: India's monsoon lashes Mumbai as rains arrive early
Heavy rains lashed Mumbai after the annual monsoon arrived in India's financial capital nearly two weeks before schedule, according to weather forecasters. The downpours, which have brought relief from high temperatures and are welcomed by farmers for their crops, also wreak havoc in urban areas every year by flooding transport infrastructure. Typically, such monsoon rains are expected across the southwestern state of Maharashtra in early June. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of 'extremely heavy rainfall' in Mumbai, while city authorities have issued a red alert in place until Tuesday. 'All citizens are advised to stay indoors and avoid travel unless necessary,' the city authorities said in a statement, urging people to 'kindly cooperate'. In a statement, the IMD said the rains had reached Mumbai on Monday, '16 days earlier than usual', with the monsoon normally expected to arrive about 11 June. This, the agency noted, is the earliest onset for nearly a quarter of a century. 'This marks the earliest monsoon advancement over Mumbai during the period 2001-2025,' it said. Across Maharashtra, regional IMD chief Shubhangi Bhute confirmed it was the earliest arrival of the monsoon in 14 years. South Asia has experienced rising temperatures in recent years, accompanied by shifting weather patterns, but scientists remain uncertain about the precise effect of global warming on the region's highly complex monsoon system. The southwest monsoon, a colossal sea breeze, delivers between 70 and 80 percent of South Asia's annual rainfall between June and September each year. It is triggered when seasonal heat warms the subcontinent's landmass, causing air to rise and drawing in cooler winds from the Indian Ocean, releasing huge volumes of rain. The monsoon is crucial for agriculture and, by extension, the livelihoods of millions of farmers and overall food security. But it also brings annual destruction in the form of landslides and floods.
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It's in opposition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which dominates the federal government. Delhi's environmental minister in several statements this week blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav for being silent on the crisis, saying the smog was their 'moral responsibility'. Rai said he wrote to Yadav four times in the past month to seek clearance for a cloud-seeding experiment that he said would help combat the crisis by generating artificial rain to clear the smog. Since last year, Delhi's government has worked with scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, an elite technical school in Uttar Pradesh, seeking to carry out a trial. 'The central government cannot remain silent like this. Artificial rain has now become an emergency need for Delhi,' Rai told journalists. 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Progressively stringent phases of the regulations have been rolled out over time, restricting the sale and registration of noncompliant engines or cars. The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) was also launched in 2019, targeting 100 cities. The aim was to significantly enhance the air quality in chosen locations by 2026 by improving monitoring. The NCAP promised to reduce particulate matter concentrations by 20 to 30 percent and overall pollution by 40 percent compared with 2017 levels. Analysts, however, said the programme was badly designed because it focuses too much on individual cities and does not jointly integrate state-level activities. In Delhi, for example, where only one-third of its pollution comes from within the state itself, some officials said they have no faith in the NCAP.
