The island city, for the second consecutive day, recorded a temperature of 36.5 degrees Celsius on Sunday. On Saturday, too, the city had recorded 36.5 degrees Celsius making it the third hottest day in the month of May in a decade. However, Santa Cruz was cooler at 34.2 degrees.
Since the onset of summer, the maximum temperature oscillated between 32 and 34 degrees Celsius. The city has seen worse temperatures in May only twice before in this decade. In 2004, the temperature had risen to 38.7 degrees Celsius, while in 2010 it climbed to 37 degrees Celsius. The all-time record was 39.7 degree Celsius on May 24 in 1972 in Colaba.
The Met department, however, said the rise in the temperature in Colaba is not of much consequence. Colaba is not a representative of the city of Mumbai when it comes to weather. The temperatures everywhere in the city are considered closer to the level of those recorded at the Santa Cruz weather station.
Meanwhile, there have been stray predictions by monsoon watchers of a strong phase of rainfall in the first week of June after the onset over Kerala, an activity attributed to the wet phase of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) wave that passes over the Indian Ocean during the period. However, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) denied that they are in the know of any such report, nor have they issued any such indications.
N.Y. Apte, deputy general director, IMD Mumbai said, “We cannot make any kind of predictions about the monsoons unless it hits Kerala, and moreover we can only make predictions for the next 48 hours and not beyond.”
However, on Sunday, rainfall occurred at isolated places in south Konkan-Goa, while the weather was mainly dry over the rest of the region, informed the IMD.