Month to go,90% of average rain in

The city has received about 90 per cent of its average annual rainfall and a month of monsoon is still left,according to data recorded at the automated weather stations installed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation at 34 locations across the city.

Mumbai receives an average of 2,430 mm during monsoon every year. Monsoon figures for this season with the India Meteorological Department show that Santacruz,till Sunday,received 2664.3 mm of rainfall since June 1,which is 800.7 mm more than its season normal during this period. Colaba,meanwhile,has received 2391.4 mm rainfall,which is 670.6 mm more than the seasonal normal. The spell of heavy rainfall since Friday night has come after the one in the first week of August,which was followed by a two-week lull. Though rainfall returned to the city with some force on August 19,there were only isolated showers. While July has been the wettest month this monsoon,August saw the highest 24-hour rainfall of the season for Santacruz.

IMD Mumbai centre director V K Rajeev said a month receives the maximum rainfall every year and it was July this year. It was the wettest July in the past six years for suburbs while Colaba received the most rainfall in 35 years,even more than that in 2005,during the same month. The island city receiving more rainfall than the suburbs was the trend this monsoon.

Meanwhile,frequent wet spells in Thane and Shahaour districts outside Mumbai have caused lake levels to rise steadily.