WeatherMan | Bandhan K

🌊🌧 #MumbaiRains #floods: Why was flooding so severe in #Vasai, #Virar & #Nalasopara this time? 🌧️ The rainfall was exceptional across the entire region. Both Vasai-Virar and its surrounding river catchments witnessed very heavy to extremely heavy rains. However, the widespread flooding wasn't caused by rainfall over Vasai-Virar alone, it was the result of multiple factors occurring simultaneously, with enormous upstream river discharge, tidal locking and urban drainage systems struggling to cope with such unprecedented volumes of water. The Ulhas River, originating near Lonavala, received extraordinary inflows after its upper catchment recorded around 1569 mm of rainfall in just 3 days. Torrential rain across the Ulhas Valley, Pune Ghats and Thane interiors sent enormous volumes of water into Vasai Creek.🌊🏞 At the same time, intense rainfall over the Nashik Ghats ⛰️, Igatpuri, Trimbakeshwar, Shahapur and Palghar swelled the Vaitarna River, which drains into the sea just north of Virar. The Tungareshwar ranges ⛰️ also received torrential rain, with numerous streams and nallas adding further runoff into the Vasai-Virar drainage network. Meanwhile, Vasai, Virar and Nalasopara themselves were experiencing torrential rainfall of about 600-700mm in last 3 days, generating massive local runoff. The region was effectively jammed from both sides. Massive upstream river discharge coincided with high tides 🌊, also during Monsoon the seas remain already rough slowing the outflow into the Arabian Sea and creating a backwater effect that prevented creeks and stormwater drains from emptying efficiently. Such an extraordinary volume of water would have stressed any drainage system. However, rapid urbanisation, shrinking wetlands and mangroves, encroachment of natural drainage channels and increasing concretisation have significantly reduced the region's natural capacity to store and drain floodwater, making the impacts even more severe. This event was a classic example of record-breaking rainfall across multiple river basins, intense local rain, tidal locking and urban infrastructure struggling to cope with an unprecedented volume of water. Today, inflows into the river systems 🌊 remain high, and several areas may continue to experience waterlogging and flooding. However, with rainfall expected to gradually reduce from now, river levels should slowly begin to recede as the excess water drains into the sea. Even so, the impacts of this exceptional rainfall event are likely to persist for the next few days, especially in low-lying areas, until the entire drainage system returns to normal. 🌧️ #KokanRains #PalgharRains #ThaneRains Video credits: varun mundra & Vasai Virar Update

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