Pune Weather Update: IMD Predicts Heavy Rainfall This Week, Orange Alert Issued for Western Maharashtra Ghats
Pune Weather Update: IMD Predicts Heavy Rainfall This Week, Orange Alert Issued for Western Maharashtra Ghats
After several days of mild monsoon showers, weather conditions over Maharashtra are now rapidly intensifying. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for Raigad and an orange alert for the ghat areas of Pune, Kolhapur, and Satara, warning of very heavy to extremely heavy rain in these regions. This change in weather is driven by merging cyclonic systems and the ongoing advancement of the southwest monsoon.
As per the IMD, two upper air cyclonic circulations—one over the west-central Bay of Bengal off the north Andhra Pradesh coast at 5.8 km altitude and another over Marathwada—have now merged. The newly formed system is currently positioned over South Madhya Maharashtra and surrounding areas, and it “extends up to 7.6 km above mean sea level, tilting southwestwards with height,” according to the IMD.
This merged weather system is expected to “influence rainfall activity over Maharashtra during June 15–18,” triggering heavy showers, especially over the ghat sections of western Maharashtra. As a result:
Raigad is under a red alert, indicating a possibility of extremely heavy rainfall.
Pune, Kolhapur, and Satara are under an orange alert, which means very heavy rainfall is likely.
IMD officials confirmed that “conditions are favourable for further advancement of the southwest monsoon over some parts of Gujarat, some more parts of Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha during the next 24 hours.” Furthermore, they added that “the monsoon is also expected to cover some parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, and east Uttar Pradesh during the subsequent three days.”
This widespread advancement is expected to increase rainfall across central and eastern India in the coming week.
Pune Forecast: Cloudy Skies, Rain Likely Until Thursday
In Pune, the IMD has forecast generally cloudy skies with light to moderate rainfall until Thursday, with a slight dip in rain activity expected toward the weekend. The extended forecast reads: “Partly cloudy sky becoming generally cloudy towards afternoon or evening. Light rain very likely.”
Weekend Rainfall Lifts City Totals
Pune and its surroundings witnessed scattered rain over the weekend, with Friday evening bringing the highest single-day rainfall of the season so far. Shivajinagar recorded 55 mm of rain, which was accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning, leading to waterlogging and traffic disruptions in multiple parts of the city.
On Saturday night and early Sunday, various parts of the city received additional rainfall:
- Lavale: 25.5 mm
- NDA (National Defence Academy): 19.5 mm
- Koregaon Park: 1.5 mm
- Magarpatta: 0.5 mm
- Shivajinagar: 0.3 mm
Sunday Showers Add to Accumulation
By Sunday afternoon and evening, light to moderate rainfall returned to several localities in Pune, pushing up the weekly totals further:
- Pashan: 7.9 mm
- Lavale: 4.5 mm
- Shivajinagar and Koregaon Park: 0.5 mm each
Rainfall also benefitted the four major dam catchment areas that supply water to Pune. Here’s the latest rain data from those zones:
- Temghar: 3 mm
- Panshet: 4 mm
- Varasgaon: 3 mm
- Khadakwasla: 16 mm
The collective storage across these dams reached 5.2 TMC on Sunday, which is significantly higher than the 3.85 TMC recorded on the same date last year.
