December 2019 first in 10 years when min temperature did not drop below 16° Celsius

The city recorded its coolest day of the season on Tuesday, with a minimum temperature of 16.4 degrees Celsius, 1 degree Celsius below normal, at the Santacruz weather

The city recorded its coolest day of the season on Tuesday, with a minimum temperature of 16.4 degrees Celsius, 1 degree Celsius below normal, at the Santacruz weather observatory. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that this was the first December since 2009 when the minimum temperature for Mumbai had not dropped below 16 degrees Celsius.

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On Tuesday morning, Colaba, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 19 degrees Celsius (lowest this season for the weather station as well), which was 0.8 degree Celsius below normal.

The maximum temperature dropped below the 30 degree-Celsius mark for the first time this season as the suburbs recorded 28.8 degrees Celsius, 2.5 degrees below normal, while south Mumbai recorded 28.6 degrees Celsius, 2.1 degrees below normal. A partly cloudy sky has been predicted for Wednesday with the minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to be 16 and 29 degrees Celsius, respectively.

On December 13 and 14, Mumbai had recorded 19.5 degrees Celsius and 18 degrees Celsius, which were the lowest temperatures for the season before Tuesday.

Over the past 10 years, from 2009 to 2018, the lowest recorded temperatures in December have ranged between 11.4 degrees Celsius and 15.2 degrees Celsius. The lowest for the decade was recorded during 2011 and 2015 at 11.4 degrees Celsius. Last year, the lowest minimum temperature was 14.4 degrees Celsius, and in 2017, it was 15.2 degrees Celsius. The lowest all-time December minimum temperature was recorded in 1949 at 10.6 degrees Celsius, according to IMD data.

“Contrary to weather conditions in northern parts of the country, Mumbai and the Konkan coast witnessed increased moisture content in the air, leading to high humidity almost throughout December. This did not allow temperatures to drop,” said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, IMD’s director-general. The average humidity level in December was 80%.

The western disturbance over north India as well as weather systems in the Arabian Sea led to a confluence of moisture-laden winds over Mumbai earlier this month, which led to very light rain, a rare phenomenon for December, added Mohapatra.

Mumbai also experienced record-breaking monsoon this year, despite a 15-day delay in the onset. A series of rain records were broken this season with five major extreme weather events that took the rain tally to its highest since 1958. Rain continued in November and traces were recorded in December.

Meanwhile, the air quality index (AQI) on Tuesday was 162, falling under the ‘moderate’ category. It is predicted to increase to 204 (poor) on Wednesday, the first day of 2020.a