After intense showers throughout the day, Mumbai registered its wettest July ever on Wednesday with the month so far witnessing a record 1557.8 mm rainfall, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The previous wettest July on record was in 2020 when 1,502 mm rainfall was logged by the IMD's Santacruz observatory (representative of Mumbai's suburbs).

"From July 1 to July 26, 2023, morning 0830 hours (8:30 am), Santacruz (observatory) had recorded 1,433 mm. So today, this record for wettest July has been broken at 2030 (8:30 pm) on July 26, 2023, with the Santacruz observatory recording a total of 1557.8 mm so far," the IMD said.

Incessant heavy rains lashed Mumbai throughout the day, prompting the weather office to upgrade the 'orange' alert to 'red' with effect from Wednesday night till Thursday afternoon.

The red alert, predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places, is valid from 8 pm on Wednesday till July 27 afternoon and covers Mumbai city and suburban areas.

First Published:Jul 27, 2023 10:44 AM IST