At 18°C, city records season’s coldest day

A day after the city recorded its lowest night temperature this season, the mercury dropped further on Saturday, making it the coldest day this winter.

A day after the city recorded its lowest night temperature this season, the mercury dropped further on Saturday, making it the coldest day this winter.

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The Santacruz weather station, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, recorded 18 degrees Celsius, 0.6 degree Celsius below normal, while Colaba, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 19.5 degrees Celsius, 1.5 degree Celsius below normal. South Mumbai recorded a 2.5 degrees Celsius drop after 22 degrees Celsius was recorded on Friday.

Parts of the northern suburbs recorded lower temperatures ranging between 16 and 17 degrees Celsius.

The weather bureau reiterated that drop in temperatures was due to the western disturbance that led to rain and snowfall in north India leading to cool northerly to northwesterly winds through the day. “Even the sea breeze has been setting in early leading to cool conditions,” said SG Kamble, scientist, India Meteorological Department.

Meanwhile, the air quality index (AQI) entered the ‘satisfactory’ category on Saturday as the pollutant measuring indicator recorded 98 after moderate AQI on Friday and poor on Wednesday and Thursday. “Low moisture and increase wind speed are helping keep pollution levels low,” said Kamble.

An AQI of 92 has been predicted for Sunday by the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) and a clear sky has been predicted by IMD.