Mumbai records season’s lowest temperature at 14.8°C; AQI worsens to poor

This was 2.7°C below normal and the lowest the mercury has dropped this season, surpassing the earlier minimum of 15°C recorded on December 29

At 14.8 degrees Celsius (°C), Mumbai recorded the season’s lowest temperature on Friday as cold north-western winds blew across the city, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Smoggy weather on Mumbai skyline at Worli in Mumbai. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT file)

IMD’s Santacruz station recorded a minimum temperature of 14.8°C, down from 15.2°C on Thursday. This was 2.7°C below normal and the lowest the mercury has dropped this season, surpassing the earlier minimum of 15°C recorded on December 29.

At Colaba, the minimum temperature was 17.5°C, 0.2°C below normal, and 0.1°C below Thursday’s minimum temperature.

“Mumbai Santacruz recorded lowest min temperature of this season today [Friday] morning from Dec 2020. Good chill in air and a pleasant morning again, with first time in this season, the Santacruz Met Observatory recorded below 15°C. No large change expected in next 24 hrs. Thereafter gradual rise,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general, western region, IMD, on Twitter.

The air quality deteriorated slightly after improving marginally on Thursday with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of 300, according to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

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.

“Due to calm winds in Mumbai and around, polluted continental air coming into the region is not getting dispersed. This condition is leading to poor AQI in Mumbai. Even with the change in wind conditions, the decrease of ventilation will add up local emission with continental pollution to keep the AQI from poor to very poor for Mumbai in the next two days,” said a spokesperson for SAFAR.