Mumbai: Mumbai and its surrounding cities witnessed unseasonal rainfall on Wednesday. Moderate to heavy rain lashed several parts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, Palghar, Thane and Pune. Rain in November-December is not a usual feature in Maharashtra.
The India Meteorological Department said the rainfall was due to the likely formation of a low-pressure area over the east-central Arabian Sea off the Maharashtra coast and a western disturbance.
The IMD has predicted cloudy sky with the possibility of light to moderate rain in Mumbai and its suburbs on Thursday. As Mumbaikars woke up to heavy showers on Wednesday, an avalanche of jokes and memes flooded Twitter with the hashtag 'MumbaiRains'.
In a report, the IMD said the country saw 645 events of heavy rainfall and 168 events of very heavy rainfall in November, the highest in the month in five years.
Meanwhile, an alert has been issued over the formation of Cyclone Jawad, which may hit the coasts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha on the morning of December 4.
The cyclone is likely to move west-northwestwards and concentrate into a depression by December 2, the IMD said.
"Under its influence, heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely over Andaman and Nicobar Islands on December 1-2; over north Coastal Andhra Pradesh on December 3-4, over coastal Odisha on December 3-5; isolated extremely heavy rainfall likely over coastal Odisha and north Coastal Andhra on December 4," the IMD said.
Fishermen have been advised by IMD to return by Thursday morning in view of the cyclone.