Mumbai: City sweats at 37.5 degree Celsius; temperature to rise

The Mumbai city continued to sizzle on Wednesday, with the India Meteorological Department’s automatic weather station in Santacruz recording a maximum temperature of 37.5 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature recorded across the state and 5.4 degrees above normal.

Temperatures will continue to soar and the weathermen have hinted at the likelihood of heatwave. Meanwhile, the maximum temperature recorded by the IMD's Colaba observatory was 34.2 degrees Celsius, around 3.3 degrees above normal.

Maximum temperatures had begun climbing up from last week, with the Santacruz observatory on March 3 recording a maximum temperature of 37.1 degrees. On Sunday, a maximum temperature of 37.2 degrees was recorded at Santacruz, the highest daytime temperature for the year so far. However, on Wednesday, this record was surpassed.

According to the IMD's forecast for the next 24 hours, there will be partly cloudy skies with the possibility of light rain and thundershowers. ‘‘The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to exceed 35 degrees Celsius and 25 degrees Celsius during the evening/night respectively,’’ an IMD official said.

Meanwhile, unseasonal rains hit parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh as well as Rajasthan on March 8. These showers were mostly light in nature with a few moderate spells in parts of Maharashtra. In the 24 hours ending at 8.30am on Wednesday, Buldana recorded 13mm of rains, Nashik 11mm and Jalgaon, 5mm.

‘‘The possibility of isolated hailstorms in a couple of pockets cannot be ruled out,’’ said Skymet Weather, a private weather forecasting agency. On March 11, parts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh may again see some rainfall, Skymet added