The city woke up to light rain in the off-season on Friday morning due to the presence of a low pressure weather system in the Arabian Sea. Although the rains did not alleviate the high minimum temperature on Friday, the city witnessed its coolest December day since 2014. The city is likely to experience cloudy skies with the possibility of light showers or thunderstorms on Saturday.
The Colaba meteorological observatory, representative of southern Mumbai, received 3 mm of rain from early Friday until 8.30 am, while the Santacruz station, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, registered 0.2 mm of rain. Humidity levels were 92% in South Mumbai and 79% in the suburbs. Between 8.30 a. M. And 5.30 p.m. M., A light rain of 1.4mm was recorded in South Mumbai and 0.7mm in the suburbs. It was mostly dry weather with a partly cloudy sky from the afternoon.
As a result of light rains and cloudy conditions, the maximum temperature in the suburbs was 28.8 degrees Celsius (4 degrees Celsius below normal and a drop of 4 degrees Celsius since Thursday), making it the lowest maximum temperature of the month since 2014. In December On December 31, 2014, the city had registered 27.8 degrees Celsius, but the lowest of the decade was recorded on December 13, 2010, at 26.5 degrees Celsius.
On Friday, South Mumbai recorded 28 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Celsius below normal) as the maximum temperature.
Rain in the early hours of Friday until 8.30am was 3mm in South Mumbai and 0.2mm in the suburbs (photo by Satyabrata Tripathy / HT)
In contrast, the low temperature in the suburbs was 24.4 degrees Celsius, 5.6 degrees Celsius above normal, the second highest December low temperature in 10 years. The highest was recorded last year on December 5 at 25.3 degrees Celsius. South Mumbai registered 24 degrees Celsius, 3 degrees Celsius above normal, on Friday.
Meanwhile, off-season rains were also recorded in parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, in the Raigad district and other areas along southern Konkan between Thursday night and Friday morning.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued a forecast of light rain or drizzle for Friday, and revised the forecast at 8 a.m. to the possibility of thunderstorms for the remainder of Friday and Saturday.
“There are two reasons for this type of weather,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general for the western region, IMD, adding that the first is the low pressure weather system in the southeast and now along the southwest Arabian Sea, and bands of clouds extending from it. extending from southern Gujarat, northern Maharashtra and over the Konkan coast. The second was the western disturbance that spread from the north of the country to the northwest and west of India.
“As it passes, there is an interplay of the easterly and westerly winds in and around the northern region of Maharashtra. This could result in light to moderate rains for north central Maharashtra and isolated areas along the Konkan coast, ”he said.
Rain during December is a rare phenomenon in the city. However, last year 1.2mm of rain was recorded on December 5 due to a climatic depression in the Arabian Sea. Between 5 and 6 December 2017, the suburbs of Mumbai recorded 53.8mm of rain, while South Mumbai recorded 82.2mm, when Cyclone Ockhi passed through the city. It was also the highest rainfall of all time in December for Mumbai.
Meanwhile, the city received rain two days after recording the highest maximum temperature in the country on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to IMD. From 36.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday to 36 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, the maximum temperature began to drop from Thursday to 33.8 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the Air Quality Index (AQI) was at 145 (moderate) with hazy conditions early Friday, but the researchers said the rains would help improve the AQI over the weekend. An AQI of 139 (moderate) is forecast for Saturday.