Overnight rain in Mumbai brings down temperatures and pollution | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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Overnight rain in Mumbai brings down temperatures and pollution

By, Mumbai
Dec 15, 2020 12:10 AM IST

Sporadic spells of light showers in the city and suburbs between Sunday and Monday not only led to the coldest day this season but also helped disperse pollutants making it the best air quality since October 19.

Pedestrians caught in rains at Sector-10 Vashi in Navi Mumbai, on Monday.(Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO)
Pedestrians caught in rains at Sector-10 Vashi in Navi Mumbai, on Monday.(Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO)

The air quality index (AQI) on Monday was 76, falling under the satisfactory category, according to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

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The last time Mumbai recorded an AQI lower than this was 68 (satisfactory) on October 19 and thereafter the AQI started rising. It was 90 (satisfactory) on October 20 and fluctuated between the poor and moderate categories up till Diwali (November 14). The AQI remained in the moderate category through rest of November with isolated spikes (on a few days) with poor AQI. However, after almost two months, light showers over the past four days improved air quality.

Mumbai witnessed intermittent spells of light showers between Sunday night and Monday morning allowing a marginal drop in minimum temperatures and considerable drop in maximum temperatures leading to cool conditions. Between 11.30pm Sunday and 8.30am Monday, the Santacruz weather observatory, representative of the suburbs and Mumbai, recorded 4.8mm rain while 13.8mm was recorded at Colaba weather station, representative of south Mumbai. Between 8.30am and 5.30pm Monday, 6.2mm rain was recorded in south Mumbai and 1.1mm in the suburbs. Maximum rain between Sunday and Monday was recorded at Kandivali at 18.6mm followed by Colaba and Mazagaon 8.4mm.

This allowed the maximum temperature to drop to 26.9 degrees Celsius, 5.4 degree Celsius below normal in the suburbs, which is the lowest this season and second lowest for the month in nine years. The lowest maximum temperature over the past decade was recorded on December 6, 2017, at 23.6 degrees Celsius. On Monday, south Mumbai recorded the maximum temperature at 27 degrees Celsius, 4.5 degree Celsius below normal. On Sunday the maximum temperature was 27.6 and 27.4 degree Celsius in the suburbs and south Mumbai respectively.

The minimum temperature fell marginally from previous days to 22 degrees Celsius, both in the suburbs and in south Mumbai, which was above normal. Mulund, Kandivali, and Powai had the lowest minimum temperatures in the city below 20 degrees Celsius.

The weather bureau predicted the possibility of light rain for Tuesday as well. “Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) received light to moderate intermittent overnight showers that continued on Monday morning. Satellite images had indicated heavy cloud cover over north Konkan region,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general, western region, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Showers are expected till Wednesday, according to IMD, due to the confluence of northwesterly (coming from western disturbance over north) and southeasterly winds (coming from a low-pressure system over the Arabian Sea) extending over northwest India. “December rain is not routine for Mumbai but showers led to traffic snarls, poor visibility, moist and wet conditions through the city, said Hosalikar. He highlighted that weather radar images on Monday had shown a cloud patch from Raigad (Navi Mumbai, Alibag, Panvel), over MMR (Mumbai, Thane, Palghar), and Nashik. Meanwhile, apart from Mumbai, Nashik recorded 9.8mm rain, Harnai 4.4mm, Thane 4.2mm, and Mahabaleshwar 2.2mm.

Is it common to see such weather in Mumbai during December?

Scientists researching tropical meteorology said two weather systems - the formation of western disturbances (WD) during this time of the year was common over northern parts of the country and the Himalayan plain while the occurrence of low-pressure weather systems over the Arabian Sea was being observed during this time of the year as well. “However, the simultaneous formation of the WD and low-pressure system at the same time is quite interesting. We need to study how rare this and understand how the confluence of winds from these two systems plays a role during December for both coastal cities and those in interior parts of Maharashtra,” said Dr. Roxy Mathew Koll, senior scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Management, Pune.

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