Drizzle brings welcome respite

Drizzle brings welcome respite
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

May 15: Wilting Mumbaikars caught an unexpected respite this morning, when a 20-minute drizzle cooled commuters at Churchgate, glazed the roads and brought hope of an early end to the baking May heat. The relief, however, was short-lived and annoyingly partial to the extreme southern and northern ends of the city. A fine drizzle also settled over Mira Road and Dahisar and parts of Thane city.

The Colaba Weather Bureau said that it recored 3.2 mm of rain at around 9 am today. Howver, the real downpour of the South-West monsoon will arrive only in June.

According to the Colaba observatory, today's unseasonal rain was due to theupper air trough over the North-East and adjoining East-Central Arabian Sea, off the Gujarat and Maharashtra coasts. The South-West monsoon also advanced into the South Andaman Sea and neighbouring South-East Bay of Bengal today, the observatory said.

``The arrival of monsoon over these sea areas is on the normal date,'' an official release said. The further advancement of the monsoon into the North Andaman Sea is being monitored. In the next 48 hours, scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely over the Andaman and Nicobar islands.