Mumbai wakes up to 2nd warmest morning in 10 years, AQI remains ‘poor’
Mumbai’s relative humidity, as per the IMD’s monitoring station in Santacruz, stood at 84% on Wednesday morning, up significantly from 64% the day before
Mumbai recorded its second warmest November morning in 10 years with the minimum nighttime temperature on Wednesday touching 26.5 degrees Celsius, only about a degree less than the high of 27.4 degrees Celsius, recorded on November 4, 2018 . Experts attributed the rise to the continuing influence of a low-pressure system in the Arabian Sea, close to the Maharashtra coast, which has scuttled wind patterns and led to an influx of moisture over the Konkan region.
“Humid air is able to hold heat. There is a weak low pressure system bringing moisture from the sea, and so it has become warmer. The wind speeds are also very slow, and so there is no cooling effect from the sea breeze. But the increasing humidity is also a sign that some thunderstorm development may happen around Mumbai soon. Parts of south Konkan and Madhya (central) Maharashtra got rains on Tuesday evening,” said a meteorologist with the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) regional forecasting centre in Mumbai.
Mumbai’s relative humidity, as per the IMD’s monitoring station in Santacruz, stood at 84% on Wednesday morning, up significantly from 64% the day before. Thunderstorms had deposited 38mm of rain over Ratnagiri, 63mm over Vengurla, 24mm over Nanded, 15.55mm over Satara, and 7.4mm over Pune until 8:30am on Wednesday.
Mumbai’s air quality Index (AQI) on Wednesday afternoon settled at 201 by 12:30 pm, a significant improvement from AQI of 269 at 8:30 am. An AQI of 100 to 199 is considered ‘moderate’, while 50 to 99 is considered ‘satisfactory’ and below 50 is considered ‘good’. AQI in excess of 200 is considered ‘poor’, above 300 ‘very poor’, above 400 ‘severe’ and above 500 is considered ‘severe+’.
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Colaba continued to register the most polluted air in Mumbai with an AQI of 320 (down from 370 a day earlier). This was in the ‘very poor’ category, which, as per the Central Pollution Control Board, can cause “respiratory illness on prolonged exposure.” Other locations with ‘very poor’ air on Wednesday included Mazagaon at 316 (down from 331 on Tuesday). Malad, which clocked an AQI of 327 on Tuesday, showed improved air quality with an index value of 290 on Wednesday.
A similar improvement was also seen in Bandra-Kurla Complex, where the AQI dropped from 311 on Tuesday to 228 on Wednesday afternoon. Chembur (183), Borivali (133), Worli (93), Bhandup (99) and Navi Mumbai (113) also saw slight improvements in air quality on Wednesday.
