Colaba records wind speed of 102 km/hr from Taukate, lets see historic Mumbai wind speeds from Cyclones

May 17, 2021
Share
Past Cyclones that affected Mumbai
Mumbai Cyclones are very very rare, very rarely we see cyclone making landfall as Cyclonic Storm in Kerala or Karnataka or Maharashtra. We can note down them and even memorize them. Have gone through the archives and found that two significant cyclones (1940 & 1948) that crossed near / over Mumbai. And have taken Nisarga too for comparative analysis of windspeeds.
1. 1940 Bombay Cyclone – Was the first cyclone to cross Bombay
Period October 12-16, 1940. The cyclone crossed right over Mumbai is the strongest cyclone Mumbai has faced till 1948 cyclone came. The maximum sustained winds (MSW) was 97 km/hr (60 miles/hr) while the gusts was 121 km/hr (75 miles/hr) over Colaba station. This was the 1st cyclone to cross Mumbai as a severe cyclone in recorded history. Colaba recorded 76 mm rainfall on October 16, 1940.
Maximum Sustained winds – Colaba  97 km/hr
Gusts – Colaba 121 km/hr
2. 1948 Bombay Cyclone – Strongest ever Mumbai cyclone
The 2nd cyclone Bombay saw was in 1948, just 8 years after the 1st one. It crossed 45 miles of Mumbai but the winds were felt more severe over Bombay with Juhu getting gusts of 151 km/hr and Colaba had gusts of 129 km/hr. The winds and damage were more than the 1940 Bombay Cyclone. Colaba recorded 101 mm rainfall on November 22, 1948. 47 people manning the SS Dipavathi drowned in the sea. Bombay came to standstill for 2 days. Dahanu got 257 mm rainfall while Lonvala 254 mm, Devgad 241 mm on 22.11.1948 while Matheran got 221 mm and Vade 231 mm on 23.11.1948
Maximum Sustained winds – Colaba 93 km/hr
Gusts –  Colaba – 129 km/hr, Alibag – Gusts 160 km/hr and Juhu  151 km/hr
3. Cyclone Nisarga (2020) – Crossed near Alibag
After almost 50 years a Severe cyclone crossed close to Mumbai with wind speeds excess of 100 km/hr. Nisarga crossed Maharashtra coast close to Alibag as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 100-120 kmph gusting to 130 kmph during noon of 3rd June 2020.
Maximum Sustained winds – Colaba 92 km/hr, Alibag 102 km/hr
4. Cyclone Tauktae (2021) – Expected to cross between Veeraval and Mahua in Gujarat later tonight
Back to Back cyclones for the west coast and this time the landfall area is far from Mumbai but the cyclone eye wall went 100 km from Mumbai city.
Maximum Sustained winds – Colaba 102 km/hr (today)
The wind speed of 114 km/hr recorded today at the weather station based at Afghan Church in south Mumbai’s Colaba area, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) needs to be checked whether it is a 3 min average maximum sustained wind (MSW) or a gust.
12 hrs Rainfall in mm till 5.30 pm in Mumbai
Juhu Airport – 273
Ram Mandir – 228
Santacruz – 194
Colaba – 179
Mira Road – 163
Bandra – 110
Alibagh – 100
Note: wind speeds from monsoon rains and thunderstorms gusts are excluded as they last only few minutes. Cyclone wind speeds sustain for hours.
Note: If the images are not clear open the images in new tab and zoom them or use a picture viewer.

Share and Enjoy !

0Shares
0
Related Posts

Much needed break till 27/28th December for Tamil Nadu

December 20, 2020

Few days feels like a long break, was hectic days to be honest. Tamil Nadu goes for a good break days from today. Next phase of rains will coincide with MJO taking short cut and coming into our basin, though majority chunk will go to southern hemisphere with ITCZ going down and cyclones expected there in Southern Hemisphere. We in northern hemisphere will get our share too with some more rains.  December end and January are not our core monsoon period, so we need to be very careful in decoding the models, though they show rains. The month end rains will be there but we need to see, whether it will be widespread or isolated ones.

MJO coming back to Phase 2 by month end

So much needed break till 27/28th particularly Pondy to Cuddalore Delta belt, they badly needed this break with so much rains in last two weeks. The next rains will come from a system from West Pacific. It weakens a lot and sends a pulse (push of moisture) into our Bay of Bengal. There is very less chance for the pulse to develop into Cyclone, but it will be in the form of a inverted trough associated with easterly wave. So just before new year we will get some rains.  There is chance for rains after new year with one more pulse coming from Pacific.  But its too early to speak about it.

Pulse from the system in Pacific entering into our Bay of Bengal

What a monsoon we had so far, there are few central districts which are unlucky like Trichy, Erode, Namakkal and salem while for Kanyakumari kannu pattu pochu, since Nellai and Thoothukudi are in excess, it is rare for Kanyakumari to miss out. Pondy is 45% excess too. In December 1st week, people were wondering if Pondy-Cuddalore-Delta can manage to avoid droughts. What a change Burevi gave and then few days ago UAC in Comorin-Sri Lanka again pounded them with awesome rains.

Central and West Tamil Nadu received less rains not by too much, because none of the cyclones managed to cross from Bay of Bengal to Arabian Sea. If they had gone like that, then they would have rocked too. Overall we have got excess rainfall of 9% for the State. The best rainfall after 2015.

Will be in incommunicado mode for next one week !!!. Will try to put a post on Dam levels of the state and if possible a post on Saturn-Jupiter conjunction.

Share and Enjoy !

0Shares
0

Ground Water Levels from Observation Wells in Chennai and Tamil Nadu

December 11, 2020

Note: Read the two lines before going ahead. Observation wells are maintained by Govt for recording Groundwater levels. Please dont correlate or compare with the groundwater bore levels in your place.

Chennai (levels in the 15 zones of Chennai)

Chennai City has so far got 1020 mm rainfall in 2020 North East Monsoon massive excess, half of that rains happened later from Cyclone Nivar at end of the month and from Cyclone Burevi at December 1st week. November 2017 was massive rains in the 1st week and so the Groundwater levels of November 2017 looks better in 10 of the total 15 Chennai corporation administrative zones than in 2020. But when we take December 2020, it will be the best in the last 5 years in all the zones.

In comparison with 2019, we are way way improved in the ground water levels.

Tamil Nadu (36 districts)

5 new districts have been added, so i could not go beyond 2019 for comparison. Tirupattur, Trichy, Karur which had wonderful southwest monsoon, the levels look even better now. In the north, Tiruvallur district levels are good compared to last year. Lets check the month of December when data will be out next month, we can see massive improvements as most of the rains from Nivar and Burevi happened in last few days of November and 1st week December.

 

Regarding more rains for Tamil Nadu, we are going to see more rains in Tamil Nadu in December last 10 days to January 1st half. Monsoon is not over yet.

Share and Enjoy !

0Shares
0