At 15.7°C, Sunday marked November’s coldest day in a decade

Sunday’s minimum temperature of 15.7°C was 4.4 degrees below IMD’s projected normal for the Santacruz observatory. The Colaba observatory recorded 20.5°C, two degrees below normal for that area

Mumbai: On Sunday morning, the city recorded its coldest November morning in over a decade, as mercury levels plunged to 15.7°C at the Santacruz weather station.

Gurugram, India-December 17, 2023: People stand close to the bonfire on a cold winter morning under the Iffco chowk elevated flyover near foot-over-bridge, in Gurugram, India, on Sunday, 17 December 2023. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

The city’s coolest known November day was in 1950, when the temperatures fell to 13.3°C. According to the India Meteorological Department’s database, in the past decade, November temperatures have skirted 16°C, but never gone below it. On Saturday, the minimum temperature at the Santacruz observatory was 21.8°C, but by Sunday morning, the temperature took a sharp fall of six degrees.

Mahesh Palawat of Skymet Weather Services said that the north-easterly winds have contributed significantly to the drop in temperature. “The cold and dry winds are coming in from the north, which has effectively led to a drop in temperatures in Mumbai,” he said, adding that the cold spell will be brief and temperatures will return to ‘normal’ in a few days. IMD’s ‘normal’ temperature for a day is the average temperature for a specific location and time of year, typically calculated using a baseline period like 1991–2020.

Sunday’s minimum temperature of 15.7°C was 4.4 degrees below IMD’s projected normal for the Santacruz observatory. The Colaba observatory recorded 20.5°C, two degrees below normal for that area.

According to the IMD’s forecast, the city’s minimum temperature is likely to hover around 15°C for the next 48 hours, while maximum temperatures may rise to 31°C.