Mumbai breathes easy as Air Quality Index hits monthly best, but mercury continues to soar

Mumbai: In a rare breath of fresh air for Mumbaikars, the city recorded its cleanest air quality since the beginning of the month on Sunday. The city registered an overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of 117, firmly placing it in the ‘moderate' category where it has remained since the start of the New Year. Though the city has seen some intermittent days of satisfactory air in January, the recent readings mark a significant point of improvement for February so far.While the city-wide average showed improvement, the air quality remained a tale of two suburbs. Residents in Borivli (60), Powai (67), and Mulund (77) enjoyed the best conditions, with levels bordering the ‘satisfactory' mark. Conversely, pockets of the city continued to struggle with stagnant air. Sion emerged as the most polluted locality with an AQI of 175, followed by Bandra East (159) and Navy Nagar, Colaba (150).The satellite cities followed a similar trend of marginal improvement. Thane recorded an AQI of 108, while Navi Mumbai stood at 113. Within Navi Mumbai, Vashi boasted a ‘satisfactory' 75, though industrial Taloja remained the outlier at 134.While the lungs found some relief, the skin felt the sting of an unseasonably warm sun as the day was 3.7° warmer than usual. Maximum temperatures across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) stayed significantly above the seasonal average. Indian Meteorological Department's (IMD) Santacruz observatory recorded a maximum temperature of 34.5°C, which was 3.6° warmer than normal. The nights offered little respite, with the minimum temperature at Santacruz settling at 19.2°C, 2° warmer than normal.The Colaba weather station mirrored this trend, recording a high of 33.4°C, which was 3.7° warmer than the normal expected temperature. The minimum temperature at Colaba was 22°C, marked as 2.3° warmer than normal. This spike in mercury suggests a momentary pause in the city's usual January chill.