City’s max temperature stays above 38°C for 4th day

Officials warned that warm conditions will persist across most of the city till at least Saturday. The IMD has also issued a ‘yellow alert’ or heat wave warning for Mumbai, Ratnagiri, Raigad and Sindhudurg districts

For the fourth straight day, the city’s maximum daily temperature crossed 38 degrees Celsius, with the temperature at 38.7°C on Thursday, according to the India Meteorological Department’s weather station. The temperature was 38.1°C on Wednesday. Thursday’s reading was 5.2 degrees above normal, as per the IMD.

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Officials warned that warm conditions will persist across most of the city till at least Saturday. The IMD has also issued a ‘yellow alert’ or heat wave warning for Mumbai, Ratnagiri, Raigad and Sindhudurg districts. “Across the Konkan region, maximum temperature could go up even further before the weekend,” said an IMD official.

The IMD’s regional meteorological centre in Mumbai defines a heat wave for the area when the maximum temperature remains at least 4.5 degrees above normal (with a recorded reading of at least 37°C). If both the IMD’s weather stations in Colaba and Mumbai simultaneously record such high temperatures for a period of 48 hours, a heat wave is declared.

Though heatwaves are unlikely in Thane and Palghar districts, the weather will continue to remain hot and dry.

IMD officials said the highest temperature observed in Mumbai during the month of March was 41.7°C in 1956. Since then, the city has recorded maximum temperature exceeding 40°C in March on five occasions in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2019.