City records season’s lowest temp at 16.5 degrees Celsius

Mumbai: After almost a week of haze and high pollution levels, Mumbaiites on Saturday woke up to a cool weather and better air quality

Mumbai: After almost a week of haze and high pollution levels, Mumbaiites on Saturday woke up to a cool weather and better air quality.

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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has recorded a minimum temperature of 16.5 degrees Celsius, which is the lowest this season so far, at Santacruz weather station, while it was 20.6 degrees at Colaba.

“The northerly wind penetration has helped to bring another short spell of lower temperatures. This effect is almost seen up to Ratnagiri in Konkan, with many places in central Maharashtra reporting temperature in single-digit. There is possibility of cloudy weather and isolated rains accompanied with thunder in the coming three to four days,” KS Hosalikar, head of IMD’s Climate Research and Services in Pune, said.

Meanwhile, the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city, though in the ‘poor’ category, stood at 211, as per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). This was a marked improvement from last week when AQI touched 309 (very poor category). Of the nine AQI monitoring stations in Mumbai, five registered ‘moderate’ indices, three ‘very poor’, while one ‘poor’.

The five stations where AQI remained in the moderate category were Colaba (111), Worli (102), Borivali (102), Andheri (166) and Bhandup (156). The AQIs was at 290 in Malad. Bandra Kurla Complex (305), and Chembur (302) recorded ‘very poor’ levels.

An AQI of 0-50 is good, and 51 to 100 is satisfactory, 101 to 200 moderate, excess of 200 is poor, excess of 300 very poor, 400+ severe, 500+ very severe. Prolonged exposure to such poor air can lead to a range of respiratory and cardiovascular problems.