As cold winds swept parts of Maharashtra, Mumbai continued to witness cool weather on Wednesday. The city recorded a minimum temperature of 19.8 degrees Celsius.
On Wednesday, the Santacruz observatory in the western suburbs recorded a minimum temperature of 19.8 degrees Celsius, while the Colaba observatory recorded a minimum temperature of 21 degrees Celsius.
According to IMD, the temperatures are likely to remain low for the next three to four days.
Meanwhile, the maximum temperature also witnessed a slight drop. According to Mumbai IMD's website, on Wednesday, Santacruz and Colaba recorded high temperatures of 29.5 degrees Celsius and 27.7 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 Wednesday was 305 (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".
On Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had said that the year 2020 was the eight warmest since 1901 but it was "substantially lower" than the highest warming observed in 2016.
The IMD said the past two decades -- 2001-2010 and 2011-2020 -- were also the warmest decades on record with anomalies of 0.23 degree Celsius and 0.34 degree Celsius respectively, indicating the overall rising temperature.
Twelve out of the 15 warmest years since 1901 were during the past 15 years -- between 2006 and 2020, according to IMD data. The country's averaged annual mean temperature during 1901-2020 showed an increasing trend of 0.62 degree C/100 years with significant increasing trend in maximum temperature (0.99 degree C/100 years) and relatively lower increasing trend (0.24 degree C/100 years) in minimum temperature.
"During the year (2020), annual mean land surface air temperature averaged over the country was 0.29 degree Celsius above normal (based on the data of 1981-2010). The year 2020 was the eighth warmest year on record since nation-wide records commenced in 1901," the IMD said in a statement on Climate of India during 2020. "However, this is substantially lower than the highest warming observed over India during 2016 (plus 0.71 degree Celsius)," it said.
(Inputs from PTI)
