At 16.4°C, mercury drops to Mumbai’s lowest this year

The city woke up to a chilly Monday morning as temperatures dropped to 16.4 degrees Celsius — the lowest so far this year. Earlier, on January 16, a minimum temperature of 16.6 degrees was recorded at Santacruz.

The city woke up to a chilly Monday morning as temperatures dropped to 16.4 degrees Celsius — the lowest so far this year. Earlier, on January 16, a minimum temperature of 16.6 degrees was recorded at Santacruz.

Mumbai’s air quality saw a slight improvement on Monday at 283, after two days of very poor air. (HT FILE)

The Santacruz weather station, representative of Mumbai and suburbs, recorded a minimum temperature of 16.4 degrees Celsius, 0.4 degree below normal. This is the second lowest temperature of the ongoing winter season after December 22 last year when mercury dropped to 16 degrees Celsius.

Colaba recorded a minimum temperature of 18.5 degrees Celsius, which was 0.5 degree below normal.

Maximum temperatures also remained low with Santacruz recording it at 30.6 degrees Celsius, 0.1 degree below normal while it was 28.6 degrees Celsius at Colaba which was 1.2 degree below normal.

The drop in temperatures was in line with the forecast by India Meteorological Department (IMD). “IMD had forecast that minimum temperatures in and around Mumbai would drop owing to cold winds from the north. This trend is likely to continue for the next two-three days,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD.

“At 16.4 degrees Celsius, Mumbai’s Santacruz recorded the lowest minimum temperature of January this year. It may dip further during the next three days due to cold winds from the north,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, meteorology and climate change, SkymetWeather, on Twitter.

Meanwhile air quality saw a slight improvement on Monday after two days of very poor air. An overall air quality index (AQI) — a pollutant measuring indicator — of 283 (poor) was recorded on Monday. Over the weekend, air quality had plummeted to very poor category with AQI at 320 on Saturday and 310 on Sunday.

“Due to continuation of high pressure system in western India, calm winds are prevailing in Mumbai and surrounding regions. Additionally, continental pollution and dusty oceanic air is polluting the air further. This condition is leading to poor AQI in Mumbai. With movement of high pressure system to the west, calm wind conditions will be relaxed slightly which is going improve AQI for Mumbai in the next two days,” said a spokesperson from System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

Navi Mumbai recorded the worst air quality at 369 (very poor), followed by Malad at 322 and Andheri at 320.

AQI was calculated by the SAFAR as the average of indices recorded at 10 locations in the city and suburbs. SAFAR categorises AQI levels for PM2.5 in the 0-50 range as good; 51-100 as satisfactory; 101-200 as moderate; 201-300 as poor; 301-400 as very poor and above 400 as severe.