MUMBAI: Day temperatures in the city reached an all-time high of 33.7 degrees Celsius on Thursday for the month of August. Just earlier, on August 18, temperatures had hit 33.6 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 33.5 degrees set in August 3, 2020.
However, relief from the hot and humid weather conditions seems to be in the offing as the IMD has issued a yellow alert for the coming weekend indicating heavy rains at isolated places.
In its five-day forecast, starting August 23, the IMD has issued a yellow alert for Mumbai indicating heavy rains at isolated places. For Thane, a warning for heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places has been issued. IMD officials said that a low-pressure area formed over east central Arabian sea off Karnataka-Goa coasts. “It is likely to move gradually northwards during next 24 hours,” said an official pointing that weather conditions currently felt like a pre-monsoon day.
The maximum temperatures recorded on Thursday by the IMD Santacruz observatory was 33.7 degrees which was 3.3 degrees above normal while the IMD Colaba observatory recorded day temperatures of 32.6 degrees which was 2.5 degrees above normal.
The minimum temperatures recorded were also above normal with the IMD Colaba and Santacruz observatory recording minimum temperatures of 26.8 degrees and 26.6 degrees respectively.
This was 1.5 degrees and 1.4 degrees above normal.
Athreya Shetty, an independent forecaster, “Break monsoon conditions are going on since the last two weeks. The sun is strong in August so under clearer skies, heat and humidity has been building since many days. Since there hasn’t been a good thunderstorm over Mumbai, atmosphere hasn’t gotten a chance to cool down.”
After the month of July saw intense rainfall on many days, the first 22 days of this month has been comparatively dry. The total rainfall recorded this season by the IMD Colaba and Santacruz observatories has been 2075.5 mm and 2248.6 mm, respectively.