Weather Forcast ! To be or not to be!

Weather forecast system in India really seems to be a joke. It almost never come true. They say, it is a science. But, I have now started doubting it. If weather forecast is a science, then Astrology must also be. Recently there was heavy rainfall in Mumbai. I wrote a post about the same here.
I don't really remember receiving any warning about such a heavy downpour from the weather forecast department. If at all they gave warning, it definitely did not reach the common man. What happened that day of 29th August, was once in a lifetime experience for many. Now, the weather department said, the next day i.e. August 30 is also going to be heavy rainfall. They infact requested everyone to not to leave their home if not necessary. All the school, colleges, offices closed down that day. I remember staying back at home the next day, waiting for that downpour, just to experience how it feels safe at home while watching a heavy downpour. But I don't remember, even a drop of rain falling down that day.
Now this week end, once again the department released a warning, about heavy rainfall, just like that of August 29 to take place with in next 72 hours. Now, this warning came I guess on Saturday. A news about the same appeared in Maharastra times on Monday. I was about to believe and get scared and to make arrangements of food and necessary things for next 3 days and stay at home, but then I saw by mistake the comments made under the news. It has kind of relieved me and took off all my worries. Its almost 72 hours over for the warning news I heard, and now while I am writing this post, some rain has started outside. It will interesting to see, if this gears up and turns into another heavy downpour.
But I can resist form sharing the news and a couple of comments reflecting the general attitude of people towards weather forecast. The news is in Marathi, I hope you get a hang of it.

Mumbai rain of August 29, 2017

Heavy rain pushed Mumbai to come to the halt on Tuesday August 29, 2017. The effect was drastic at low lying areas, where all water was accumulating. But, the severity of the rain was evident even in the safe areas. The videos shows the intensity of rain at one such place.








I happen to be present in this Institute, which can be called partly safe from water logging issue. These two videos capture the intensity of the rain and the increasing flow of water collected within the same area. The water fall  apparent in the first video are no natural waterfalls. Those are actually just the route to remove some water collected on the roof. But the rain fall intensity takes it to another level.

I heard Shivsena chief mentioning that there was 9 km thick cloud on the top of Mumbai that day and we are lucky that there was no cloud burst. He also said that had that been the case, the rainfall measurements would have easily crossed 3000 mm of rain, which otherwise was restricted to nearly 300 mm.

I am wondering, if they are realizing the need of a preparation for such situations. Present conditions can not cope up with rainfall upto 300 mm in a day. Don't they think they should get ready for those adverse situations, if not completly, atleast partly. Its not that such things won't happen. Mumbai has experienced a rainfall of nearly 1000 mm in a day. So, Mumbai is becoming prone to such conditions where there could a catastrophe. It may even experience even worse conditions, with this heavy cloud building up scenarios getting more and more stronger. I think, its high time, we learn lesson and try to build up more robust model to face such critical situations. We are not doing enough !!!

A rainy day in Mumbai

 Since yesterday, any news channel you open, its occupied by Mumbai rain.Mumbai was lashed by heaviest ever rain in the month of June. At places it recorded as big as 530 mm of rainfall. Of course, necessary preparations were not in place to tackle such high rainfall. What resulted was a chaos everywhere. The rain disturbed day to day activities of Mumbai city. First and foremost effect was observed on the traveling routes.

 The lifeline of Mumbai is its local train service. If local trains are stopped, every thing stops. That's  what happened yesterday. Most of the railway tracks in the low lying areas were underwater. One snap of Chuna Bhatti station showed water filled till the platform level. There were jokes making round on whatapp saying, "India has developed first train that runs on water. Japan and Germany are jealous of India". 

All the commuters who have to use locals couldn't get out of their starting stations because all the locals were stopped.  Alternative to locals is road way. BEST also has efficient transportation system in Mumbai. Infact at most of the places buses were traveling. But, even these routes were filled with water enough upto the levels of car bumper. At places, even the half of the trucks were seen under water.

 Those roads where there was no water clogging were clogged with all kinds of vehicles. Forget, buses or cars, even two wheelers which otherwise finds it easy to make space to move ahead were stuck at places. And once, you are stuck in this traffic, you are stuck for a big time. You can neither move ahead through this traffic nor can you leave your vehicle on road. The only option was to stay back at home. Those who news early morning, stayed back home.

 But then there are enthusiasts, who wants to convert these moments into adventurous ones. There are many spots in Mumbai where you can see sea water reaching upto roads. Yesterday was also a day for high tide coinciding with the heavy rains. As a result, sea was at its best with tides as high as 4.5 mts hitting the shore. And obviously, there will be mumbaikars who wants to get drenched with these high tides.

But deep inside, sea had turned into monster. It was advised to all the fishermen not to enter the sea. A look of sea from Worli-Bandra sea link would have made one think whether it was right decision to climb up on this route.

Overall, it was an altogether different experience. It could have reached the disastrous stage of July 26, 2005. But some how with all the information available on news, internet, it was possible to tackle the day without any big mishap.

P.S: All the photos were taken from internet.