At 39.1C, Mumbai experiences hottest Feb day in 46 years

Mumbai has experienced perhaps the most erratic February in its recorded history. Twelve days after the city experienced the third-lowest temperature in February in its recorded history, on Tuesday the mercury climbed to a scorching 39.1 degrees celsius-the hottest February day in the past decade and possibly in 46 years.

By 1.30pm on Tuesday, Santa Cruz recorded a day-time temperature of 39.1 degrees celsius-higher than 37.9 degrees clsius of February 27, 2005. The all-time high day temperature of 39.6 degrees celsius was recorded on February 25, 1966.

The weather bureau blamed the easterly winds for the sudden heat. "It is because of the dry easterly winds, which have been bringing in heat from the land side, that the temperatures have risen so high," said Bishwombhar Singh, director, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Mumbai.

What was worse was the low 14% relative humidity when the temperature was recorded on Tuesday. "The weather was not only extremely hot, but also dry due to lack of sea breeze," Singh said. The maximum temperature at Santa Cruz was seven degrees above normal.

While Colaba recorded a maximum temperature of 35.2 degrees celsius (five degrees above normal), the minimum temperatures recorded at Colaba and Santa Cruz were 22.3 and 17.8 degrees celsius, respectively.

The MET department has predicted that the city will continue to suffer high temperatures over the next two-three days. "Temperatures will remain high at least for the next two-three days. However, since the wind direction changed to the north-westerly side from the second half of Tuesday, there is likely to be more relative humidity from Wednesday," Singh said.

In what may be even more surprising for Mumbaikars, city temperatures may see another dip in the next few days, if the western disturbance causes rainfall in the northern plains of the country. "A western disturbance is once again affecting Jammu & Kashmir. If there is rainfall in the north because of this activity, temperatures in the city may dip again gradually," the IMD chief said.