Mumbai’s minimum temperature drops below 20°C, AQI in moderate zone

The minimum temperature on Saturday dropped below the 20 degrees Celsius mark in Mumbai, the lowest so far this season.

The Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, recorded the minimum temperature at 19.7 degrees Celsius, which was 2 degrees Celsius below normal.

However, there was a wide gap between the minimum temperature in the suburbs and in south Mumbai. The Colaba weather station, representative of south Mumbai, recorded 24 degrees Celsius, which was at the normal mark.

The weather bureau said minimum temperature was expected to hover in the range of 19-21 degrees Celsius over the next week due to the current wind pattern.

“For the first time this season, Mumbai has recorded the minimum temperature below 20 degrees Celsius. The cool winds from easterly and northeasterly direction is leading to this, which is also reducing moisture in the city’s air — typical of the weather pattern during this time of the year,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general western region, India Meteorological Department.

The maximum temperature has remained at the normal mark in the suburbs and a degree Celsius below normal in south Mumbai.

Owing to a rise in wind speed over the past 48 hours, the air quality index (AQI) has remained in the moderate category, as per the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). The AQI, which was at 221 (in poor category) earlier in the week, stood at 149 (moderate) on Saturday. Pollution levels are likely to decline further as an AQI of 132 (moderate) has been predicted for Sunday.

SAFAR categorises AQI levels for PM2.5 in the 0-50 range as good; 51-100 as satisfactory; 101-200 as moderate; 201-300 as poor; 301-400 as very poor and above 400 as severe.

Location-wise minimum temperatures, as recorded by IMD’s automatic weather stations, showed Kandivali was the coolest at 18.9 degrees Celsius, followed by Malad at 19.6, while Panvel was the coolest in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region at 14.8 degrees Celsius. Navi Mumbai recorded 18.6 degrees Celsius.

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