Cyclone Vayu to intensify

Mumbai: Heavy pre-monsoon showers hit Mumbai on Tuesday after the city saw a good spell of rainfall on Monday night. While the city received moderate rainfall, the suburbs recorded intermittent spells since noon. Weathermen have attributed the rainfall to Cyclone Vayu in the east-central Arabian Sea.

While the weathermen have stated that the cyclone would not have any destructive effect on the state’s capital, they stated that it would lead to heavy rainfall in all of Mumbai.

Due to low visibility, many flight operations were disrupted, leading to delay in both arrivals and departures. As per the Mumbai Air Traffic Control, 16 domestic flights and six international flights that were on their way to Mumbai were diverted to Hyderabad, Delhi and Ahmedabad airports. There was also delay on all the three lines of local trains owing to continuous rains on Tuesday.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Vayu is likely to reach the Mumbai’s latitude today morning, leading to extreme weather and rain. “The cyclone is advancing at a speed of 540 kmph southwest of Mumbai. It is expected to hit between Porbandar and Veraval in Gujarat on the morning of June 13. It will be a severe cyclonic storm with wind gusting at the speed of 135 kmph,” said K.S. Hosalikar, deputy director general, IMD.

Meanwhile, Skymet Weather, a private weather forecasting agency, stated that the cyclone is expected to bring the monsoon to Mumbai by Sunday this week. “Weather conditions are depicting monsoon air mass over Mumbai and the credit goes to Vayu,” read the Skymet Weather report.