Mumbai woke up to a chilly morning on Tuesday as the mercury dipped sharply. The Santa Cruz Observatory recorded the minimum temperature at 14.1 degree Celsius, which made Tuesday the coldest day of the winter season so far.
Explaining the reason behind the change in weather, KS Hosalikar, Deputy Director General (Western Region) Indian Meteorological Department said, “The northern part of the country is experiencing cold wave and due to which Mumbai is also witnessing northerly winds that are causing the minimum temperatures to fall.”
The IMD had already forecast that the temperature of not only Mumbai but several cities across Maharashtra will drop, Hosalikar added.
Citing the example of the freezing temperatures in northern part of the country, Hosalikar said Jammu and Kashmir's Leh recorded a temperature of -14.8 Degree Celsius.
Meanwhile, as per IMD officials, the temperature in India's financial capital will continue to be in this range for few days and then could rise again.
“From Monday night itself it was evident that there was a major dip in the temperature. Around 12 pm while I was returning from office I was almost shivering in the auto rickshaw and I am not surprised that Tuesday the temperature was a record so far,” said Sanjay Deshmukh, a Borivali resident.
On Tuesday the minimum recorded temperatures at Mahabaleswar was 12.8 degree Celsius, Gondia was 8.5 degree Celsius, Nagpur was 11.8, Nashik was 8.2 degree Celsius and Pune was 10.8 degree Celsius.
In fact, the record for all time lowest temperature in January was on January 22, 1962 when the minimum temperature recorded was 7.2 degree Celsius.
According to IMD officials, till date, Mumbai's three of the coldest days have been in January 1962, when the minimum was recorded as 7.4 degree Celsius; in February 2008 when the mimimum mercury reached 8.5 degree Celsius and in February 2012 when the minimum temperature recorded was 8.8 Celsius.
