Mumbai sizzles at 35.7°C, season’s highest temp so far

The city and suburbs both recorded their highest day temperature this season so far on Saturday. Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs, recorded 35.7 degrees Celsius, almost 2 degree Celsius above normal. Till Saturday, the maximum temperature had not surpassed the 35 degree Celsius mark in the suburbs during May. Colaba weather station, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 35.4 degrees Celsius, a little over a degree Celsius above normal. The night temperature was also the highest in five years at 29.2 degrees Celsius in the suburbs, the same as the highest minimum recorded during May 2016.

The weather bureau said light overnight drizzling was recorded across the city and suburbs between Friday night and Saturday morning. “A partly cloudy sky during day led to a high minimum temperature while clear conditions later in the day led to land heating which increased day temperatures,” said an official from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Meanwhile, IMD updated district-wise rainfall forecast stating ‘very light to light rain’ was expected in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar on Monday while ‘light to moderate rain’ has been predicted on Tuesday. “The likely formation of a weather system over southeast Arabian Sea, which may intensify and move towards Maharashtra and Gujarat coast will pave way for premonsoon rain,” the official added.

Meanwhile, private weather forecasting agency Skymet said all conditions were met for southwest monsoon onset over Kerala on Saturday. However, both IMD and secretary of ministry of earth sciences M Rajeevan denied it. “News about monsoon onset over Kerala in social media is not correct. Monsoon has not arrived over Kerala yet,” Rajeevan said.