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In Pictures

Gallery|Climate Crisis

Roads turned into rivers as monsoon rains hit Mumbai

Intense monsoon rains cause traffic chaos in India’s most populous city.

Mumbai rains
Traffic grinds to a halt as water clogs the streets of Mumbai. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]
Published On 21 Aug 201721 Aug 2017

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Roads in Mumbai have been transformed into rivers after torrential rain fell across the Indian city.

The heavy burst of monsoon rains on Sunday dropped 157mm of rain in just 24 hours, flooding roads and bringing traffic to a standstill.

The monsoon typically lasts from early June to late September and brings 94 percent of the rain expected in the city in the entire year.

So far, the rains have brought an “average” amount of rain to the state of Maharashtra. This is good news because too much rain can lead to flooding, as is currently the case in northeast India, Bangladesh and Nepal and too little rain can trigger drought, as was seen in the state last year.

Mumbai is likely to see more disruption in the coming days, with the India Meteorological Department warning of more extremely heavy rain to come.

 

Mumbai rains
The monsoon dropped 157mm of rain in 24 hours. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]
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Mumbai rains
Heavy rain is fairly common at this time of year, during the summer monsoon. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]
Mumbai rains
The monsoon typically reaches Mumbai on about June 8 every year, and clears away on September 22. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]
Mumbai rains
Ninety-four percent of Mumbai's rain falls during the monsoon. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]
Mumbai rains
Because the monsoon brings the vast majority of Mumbai's rainfall, the exact amount that falls is very important. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]
India Drought 2016
In 2015, the monsoon's below-average rainfall led to Maharashtra's drought in the early part of 2016. [Manish Swarup/AP]
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West Bengal Flood
This year, torrentially heavy monsoon rains brought extensive flooding to northeast India, Nepal and Bangladesh. [AFP]
Mumbai rains
The amount of rain brought by the monsoon so far this year has been average. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]
Mumbai rains
The India Meteorological Department is warning of more extremely heavy rain to come. [Praful Gangurde/Getty Images]


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