Mumbai hit by heatwave as max temp touches 38.9°C

Mumbai: The weather bureau on Thursday issued a heatwave warning—the season's first—for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar as the city logged the year's highest maximum temperature at 38.9°C.Immediate relief is unlikely as IMD has issued a "hot and humid" alert for Friday for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad. While temperatures are expected to dip slightly over the weekend to about 35°C, officials cautioned that this may be temporary. Forecast models indicate another sharp rise in daytime temperatures around March 11.IMD scientist Sushma Nair said that the spike in temperatures was owing to an anticyclone over south Gujarat and neighbouring areas that has thrown hot air. She said such spikes are not unusual during the seasonal transition from winter to summer. "With moisture levels in the air still relatively low and dry northerly winds pushing into MMR, brief surges in temperature are common during this period," she said.As per IMD records, Mumbai had logged its highest ever temperature for the month—41.7°C—on March 28, 1956.A heatwave is declared when temperatures touch 37°C or more for two consecutive days. The city had recorded a daytime temperature of 38.7°C on Wednesday. Thursday's high, recorded at the Santacruz weather station, was 5.9°C above normal readings. The Colaba observatory recorded a maximum temperature of 36.2°C (3.4°C above normal). Experts said the city likely faced a heatwave on Wednesday too, when a hot and humid warning was issued, but an alert for it was not issued because it didn't meet IMD's criteria.Minimum temperatures were also high—the Colaba and Santacruz observatories recorded 24°C and 22°C, respectively, around 2°C above normal. Relative humidity logged by the two stations was 55% and 59%, respectively. IMD has forecast that minimum temperatures will continue to hover around 22°C this weekend.