MUMBAI/PUNE: The popular hill station of Mahabaleshwar in Satara district received 594.4mm rainfall in 24 hours till 8.30am on Friday, smashing its previous all-time high of 490.7mm on August 11, 2008, since records were kept from 1901.
“On July 22, the hill station got 480mm rainfall in 24 hours till 8.30 am on Thursday. The previous highest 24-hour July rainfall was 439.8mm on July 7, 1977,” said Pulak Guhathakurta, IMD, Pune. Two weather systems, one along the west coast of India and the other in the Bay of Bengal, have brought unprecedented rain to Maharashtra in the last two days, triggering landslides and flooding.
All four rivers that originate at Mahabaleshwar — Krishna, Koyna, Venna, Savitri — are in spate. The flooding, landslides and devastation over the past two days is unlike that of 2019, when large amounts of water were discharged from dams. Incessant and heavy rain in these districts of Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Ratnagiri and Raigad has caused havoc now. As the aerial distance between Mahabaleshwar and Mahad (in Raigad district), Navaja and Chiplun is not much, heavy rainfall here brings water down to these towns.
The Poladpur weather station in Raigad district recorded 305mm rainfall in 24 hours till 8.30 am on Friday, the third-highest July rainfall.
Guhathakurta said: “Since July 18, Mahabaleshwar has received heavy to extremely heavy rainfall for six consecutive days. Maharashtra has recorded widespread rains, not only in ghats and west Maharashtra, but also in the interiors.”
All three met subdivisions of Maharashtra — Konkan & Goa, Madhya Maharashtra and Marathwada — have got excess rainfall from June 1 to July 23 with Mumbai suburbs, Ratnagiri, Beed, Jalna and Parbhani getting large excess rainfall.
