Mumbai: Friday records lowest minimum temperature of the season so far

The Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, recorded the minimum temperature at 19 degrees Celsius, over a degree lower than the normal

Mumbai recorded its lowest minimum temperature of the season so far on Friday. The Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, recorded the minimum temperature at 19 degrees Celsius, over a degree lower than the normal.

A hazy Bandra Worli Sealink in Mumbai. (HT file)

The Colaba weather station, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 22.5 degrees Celsius, a degree Celsius below normal.

Prior to Friday, Mumbai had recorded 19.2 degrees Celsius on November 10 and 19.7 degrees Celsius on November 7 but the minimum temperature remained above the 20 degrees Celsius mark for the rest of the month. It increased to 25 degrees Celsius on November 8 and November 19, recording the highest minimum temperature for the season. On December 1, Mumbai recorded the night temperature at 24.4 degrees Celsius, which was the second highest December minimum temperature in 11 years.

The weather bureau said cool winds from easterly to northeasterly direction allowed the night temperature to dip. “Minimum temperatures across the entire Maharashtra witnessed a decline on Friday. While Mumbai recorded a pleasant morning with the season’s lowest temperature with a few locations in the city recording temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius due to a cool breeze, some interior areas in the state recorded the minimum temperature as low as 10 degrees Celsius,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

On Friday, the lowest minimum temperature within Mumbai was recorded in Powai and Kandivali at 18.32 and 18.33 degrees Celsius respectively while the warmest location was Worli with the minimum at 26 degrees Celsius, displaying an 8 degree Celsius variation across the city.

With a drop in temperatures, the pollutant-measuring indicator -- air quality index (AQI) -- remained in the moderate category on Friday. The AQI was 176 (for PM2.5 pollutant) with Mazgaon (290), Malad (262), Chembur (256), and Bandra Kurla Complex (242), all recording poor air quality. Worli was the only location in Mumbai that recorded satisfactory AQI of 98.

An AQI of 169 (moderate) has been predicted for Saturday.

Meanwhile, minimum temperatures across the state saw Gondia record the lowest temperature of 10.6 degrees Celsius on Friday followed by Parbhani at 11.1 degrees Celsius and Pune at 11.9 degrees Celsius. Thane recorded the highest minimum temperature of 24 degrees Celsius.