Heavy rains and severe weather will continue in Mumbai as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday morning issued an orange alert for the city and its neighbouring Thane and Palghar districts. Orange alert indicates very heavy rainfall coupled with gusty winds reaching up to 60-70 kmph.According to the IMD alert for Mumbai, the heavy rains with gusty winds will continue to batter the financial capital and its neighbouring Thane and Palghar till 8.30 am on Friday, July 24. While rains will continue to lash Palghar, the weather is expected to turn severe with the IMD sounding a red alert for the next 24 hours.Mumbai woke up to heavy showers and cloudy sky on Thursday morning. “At present, a low-pressure system has developed over Mumbai and coastal Maharashtra, which is resulting in a surge in the heavy to moderate spell of rainfall. This will continue throughout the day as the system favouring the rainfall is here to stay for a while,” an IMD official told The Indian Express.According to the IMD, in the last 24 hours, the Santacruz observatory has recorded 63.6 mm of rainfall, while the coastal observatory at Colaba recorded 22.2 mm of rain. Meanwhile, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) automatic weather system (AWS) shows that Mumbai’s eastern suburbs have recorded 73.93 mm of rainfall, followed by 69.14 mm at western suburbs and 31.04 mm at the island city.In its 24-hour forecast, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) maintained that heavy rain will continue to lash the maximum city throughout the day, coupled with gusty winds at an average speed of 50-60 KMPH. Furthermore, the civic body has also forecasted stating that Mumbai’s sea will swell up on Thursday evening since there is a possibility of a high tide rising up to 3.06 meters.Mumbai’s water stock inches 70 per cent markMeanwhile the heavy rainfall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has pushed Mumbai’s total water stock in all the seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai to 69.74 per cent – a jump by 7.84 percentage points in the past 24 hours.Being an island city, Mumbai draws its potable water from seven lakes–Tulsi, Vihar, Bhatsa, Tansa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, and Modak Sagar. While the Tulsi and Vihar lakes are located within Mumbai, the rest are situated in the neighbouring districts of Thane, Palghar, and Nashik. The catchment area of these lakes gets filled during the monsoon, and the water is transported through tunnels to the BMC’s filtration plant.Story continues below this adThe combined capacity of these seven lakes stand at 14.47 lakh liters and at present, the stock stands at 10.09 lakh liters.As on Thursday, four lakes — Tulsi, Vihar, Modak Sagar and Tansa are 100 per cent full now while the water stock at Bhatsa stand at 65.01 per cent, followed by 62.72 per cent at Middle Vaitarna and 49.42 per cent at upper vaitarna.The civic officials maintained that the Modak Sagar Lake reached its full capacity at 2 am in the morning making it the fourth lake in the last one month to get replenished after rainfall made its rainfall. In the last 24 hours, the catchment area of Modak Sagar received 185 mm of rainfall, while the catchment area of upper vaitarna received 230 mm of rainfall and middle Vaitarna received 207 mm of rainfall. This is followed by 185 mm received at Modak Sagar, 163 mm at Tulsi lake, 124 mm at Bhatsa lake, and 103 mm recorded at Tansa Lake.The BMC supplies water of 3,850 million liters daily (MLD) against an overall demand of 4,200 MLD. Therefore, the current stock is set to last for a period of 375 days.Story continues below this adMeanwhile, owing to the heavy rainfall in the catchment areas, the Modak Sagar Lake which is one of the seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai reached its full capacity on Thursday morning and started to overflow.