Warm up for Sunday chill scenes at 13°C Venna Lake wakes up to ‘frosty’ morning
AIR TURNS POOR City woke up to coldest morning this winter on Saturday; temp near SGNP lowest
MUMBAI: Cool northerly winds pushed the mercury down to 11 degrees Celsius on Saturday morning, making the city experience the coldest morning of this winter. This is the lowest February temperature in Mumbai since 2012. Meanwhile, air quality worsened on Saturday with the air quality index (AQI) at 269, falling under the ‘poor’ category.
Most weather stations in Mumbai recorded minimum temperatures ranging between 11 and 16 degrees Celsius on Saturday. The minimum temperature at Santacruz weather station was 11 degrees Celsius, seven degrees below normal for February. At Colaba weather station, the mercury was four degrees below normal, at 15.6 degrees Celsius. The area near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park was the coldest at 10 degrees Celsius, followed by Powai at 11.1 degrees Celsius. Panvel in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region recorded 8.8 degrees Celsius. Ghatkopar was the warmest at 16.2 degrees Celsius.
The day warmed up quickly, with the city recording a six-degree rise in maximum temperatures on Saturday. Santacruz recorded 30 degrees Celsius, and Colaba recorded 29.2 degrees Celsius, both of which are close to the normal mark. “The lower level northerly to northwesterly winds due to the western disturbance and weather systems over northwest parts of India continue to keep temperatures six to seven degrees Celsius below normal,”
said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, India Meteorological Department. According to the weather bureau, the cold spell is due to northerly winds prevailing close to the surface since Wednesday.
Prior to Saturday, the lowest temperature for the season was
recorded on December 27, 2018 at 12.4 degrees Celsius. Mumbai’s lowest February night temperature over the past 10 years was 8.8 degrees Celsius, recorded on February 9, 2012, and the all-time lowest monthly minimum temperature for Mumbai was recorded on February 8, 2008 at 8.5 degrees
Celsius.
Meanwhile, the air quality of the city worsened. Bandra Kurla Complex, Andheri, Mazgaon and Malad all recorded ‘very poor’ AQI levels while other areas fell under the ‘poor’ category. Researchers from the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting
COLD SPELL IN STATE
Yavatmal and Research said the drop in temperatures and construction activity had allowed small pollutant particles to be trapped closer to surface. A clear sky has been predicted for Sunday with day and night temperatures expected at 27 and 13 degrees Celsius. Air quality is likely to be 260 (poor). PUNE: Pune recorded its coldest February morning in 100 years on Saturday as northerly winds brought cold wave conditions to parts of Maharashtra.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) expects these conditions to continue till Monday. “Similar conditions are expected till Monday. Isolated areas in interior Maharashtra, especially north central Maharashtra and Marathwada, are likely to witness thundershowers and cold wave conditions,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD.
According to the IMD, Mahabaleshwar City recorded nine degrees Celsius on Saturday. Pune, at 5.2 degrees Celsius, recorded its lowest February temperature in 100 years. At Venna Lake in Mahabaleshwar, tourists woke up on Saturday morning to find the jetty had turned white with frost.
While the IMD does not have an observatory at Venna Lake, the regional wheat rust research station at the lake recorded one degree Celsius at its campus. “For the past two days, Mahabaleshwar has been in the grip of cold weather. On Saturday, the research station recorded one degree Celsius and -2 degrees Celsius at Venna Lake. Because of this [cold wave] we have lost of wheat sapling plots cultivated for research on rust disease. This will definitely affect strawberry, wheat, tomato crops,” said station head Narute TK.