Owing to northern winds blowing into the state, Mumbai woke up to its coldest winter morning on Wednesday as temperatures dropped to 14.8 degree Celsius, the city's lowest so far this year.
The Santacruz station of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded a minimum temperature of 14.8 degrees Celsius, while the Colaba observatory recorded a minimum temperature of 17.5 degrees Celsius. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the trend is likely to continue for 24 hours with a gradual increase in temperatures thereafter.
"The northerly winds have pushed the mercury levels down. There will be no large change in the temperature for the next 24 hours, but a gradual rise in it is expected in the coming days," an IMD told news agency ANI.
Earlier, on January 27, a minimum temperature of 15.3 degrees Celsius was recorded at Santacruz. Before that, the lowest minimum temperature of the ongoing winter season was 15 degrees Celsius on December 29 last year.
The maximum temperatures recorded also saw a slight dip. According to the IMD Mumbai website, Santacruz, and Colaba recorded maximum temperatures of 29.9 and 28.4 degrees Celsius, respectively.
The drop in temperature has also affected Mumbai’s air quality. According to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the air quality index (AQI) for all pollutants on Friday was 300 (very poor). An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".
Besides Mumbai, the chill was also felt in parts of northern Maharashtra on Friday.
According to the IMD, the minimum temperature in Pune was 12.7 degrees Celsius, while it was 10.8 degrees Celsius in Nashik, and 14.6 degrees Celsius in Jalgaon. Baramati recorded a minimum temperature of 15.4 degrees Celsius, Dahanu 14.2 degrees Celsius, and Malegaon 12.8 degrees Celsius, the IMD said.
