City to shiver under grip of cold wave from Feb 2 – Hindustan Times

Mumbai: A cold snap is once again expected to descend over the city and surrounding suburbs by February 2, said officials with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Mumbai.

On Sunday, the city’s minimum temperature stood at its highest in three weeks (at 22 degrees Celsius), while daytime temperatures have also risen, peaking at a monthly high of 34.5 degrees Celsius on January 28.

“The rise in temperature is because of a new western disturbance which just passed over north India, including parts of the north Maharashtra coast. Now that the influence of this system is waning, there will be a sudden drop in temperature. A cold wave in Mumbai is defined as per norms of coastal stations, meaning if the minimum temperature drops below 15 degrees for more than a day. There is a chance of this happening in the next week,” said an official with the IMD’s regional forecasting centre in Mumbai.

WDs are storms that form in the Middle East and travel eastward, bringing sporadic and sudden winter rain to the northern parts of India, with their influence sometimes extending along the western coast and in central India. They are typically heralded by warmer temperatures and preceded by a dip in mercury levels. Sometimes, they lead to an incursion of dust from the Middle East, Pakistan and parts of Rajasthan into the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) on the backs of westerly winds.

However, this latest WD has not kicked up any transboundary dust as forecasters feared, and in fact, rising temperatures brought about a small respite for citizens on Sunday, when the AQI settled at a ‘moderate’ 176, down from a ‘poor’ reading of 244 a day prior. “When temperatures will fall again, particulate matter pollution will go back up leading to very hazy mornings,” the IMD official cautioned.