mumbai

Updated: Feb 19, 2017 01:11 IST

The city recorded its second highest February day temperature in a decade, equalling the day temperature recorded in 2015 on Saturday.

The Santacruz weather station, representative of Mumbai, recorded the day temperature at 38.8 degrees Celsius, 8.3 degrees Celsius above normal. The Colaba station, representative of south Mumbai, recorded the maximum at 8.6 degrees Celsius above normal — at 38.2 degrees Celsius.

On February 23, 2015, the city had recorded 38.8 degrees Celsius. The highest for the decade, however, was recorded on February 22, 2012 at 39.1 degrees Celsius and the all-time high was recorded at 39.6 degrees Celsius on February 25, 1966.

Night temperatures were also high in Mumbai on Saturday. South Mumbai recorded 23.8 degrees Celsius, 2.7 degree Celsius above normal as the minimum temperature, while 19.6 degrees Celsius was recorded in the suburbs, which was 1.4 degrees Celsius above normal.

Even with the high temperatures, commuters did not sweat it out as moisture levels were low, especially in the suburbs on Saturday. Santacruz and Colaba recorded 34% and 70% humidity, respectively.

Officials from the weather bureau said hot conditions were expected to continue on Sunday and the first half of next week. “Warm winds from the eastern and south-eastern parts of the country are prevailing over the city that has kept temperatures above the 35 degrees Celsius mark. On Friday, however, the cool sea breeze set in very late that further led to a rise in the maximum,” said VK Rajeev, director, western region, India Meteorological Department (IMD). “We expect temperatures to gradually reduce from Wednesday onwards.”

Meanwhile, along with high temperature, pollution levels showed a spike. The pollutant-measuring indicator – air quality index (AQI) — stood at 210 for the city, falling under the ‘poor’ category. However, this was a drop from the recordings on Friday at (245-poor). Researchers predicted a similar AQI of 208 for Sunday.

READ MORE

Wednesday the second hottest February day since 2013 in Mumbai