Mumbai: Mercury at winter's lowest in city; Santacruz records minimum temperature of 15°C on Sunday

Mumbai: Mumbai woke up to a chilly Christmas morning on Sunday, with Santacruz recording minimum temperature of 15 degrees Celsius, the lowest temperature of this year’s winter. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted the temperature to remain below 17 degrees Celsius for the next two days with a possibility of fog on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Santacruz witnessed a minimum temperature of 15.0 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 29.0 degrees Celsius, with 61% relative humidity, IMD said on Sunday. Colaba experienced a minimum temperature of 18.5 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 28.5 degrees Celsius, with 74% relative humidity. The lowest minimum temperature of the city before Sunday during this year's winter was on Saturday at 16 °C.

IMD has predicted the formation of fog in the early morning hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by clear skies later in the day. "We were expecting a significant drop in temperature around Christmas time and we did experience it on Sunday. We expect the climate to remain cool for the coming days with an average temperature between 15 °C to 17 °C," said IMD official Sushma Nair.

The minimum temperature recorded in Maharashtra on Sunday was 9.8 °C in Nashik, followed by Jalgaon and Aurangabad at 10.7 °C and 10.8 °C respectively.

Meanwhile, the air quality of Mumbai on Sunday was better than that of the last two days as it was in the ‘moderate’ category with an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of 183. However, Andheri remained in the 'very poor' category with an AQI of 305, while Chembur (269), Mazagoan (252) and Malad (215) were in the 'poor' category on Sunday.

According to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research, the air quality of Mumbai is predicted to remain in the moderate category for the next two days.

The lowest minimum temperature recorded in Mumbai over the last 10 years was in December in 2011 and 2015, at 11.4 °C, followed by 2014 at 12.0 °C.