Red alert for 5 Maharashtra districts, orange warning for Mumbai: IMD

The IMD on Tuesday issued a red alert for five Maharashtra districts, including Raigad and Pune, forecasting extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places, for the next two days.

The India Meteorological Centre (IMD) on Tuesday issued a red alert for five Maharashtra districts, including Raigad and Pune, forecasting extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places, for the next two days.

It also issued an orange alert for Mumbai between Wednesday and Friday, indicating possibility of heavy to very heavy rainfall. The IMD's Mumbai centre forecast a 'very likely' probability of "extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places" in five districts - Pune, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Kolhapur and Satara. The red alert in these districts was issued for Wednesday and Thursday. Extremely heavy rainfall means precipitation of more than 204.5 mm in 24 hours, the met office said. The IMD describes rainfall as 'very likely' when the probability of the occurrence is 51 to 75 per cent. A red rain alert also means authorities should take preventive actions such as evacuation of people from vulnerable areas and deploy rescue teams. The IMD's orange alert for Mumbai between Wednesday and Friday says that heavy to very heavy rain (115.6 mm to 204.4 mm) is likely at a few places in the metropolis.

Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of the state are likely to receive light to moderate showers till Friday, it said.