February Lowest temerature of Mumbai in last five year

The city on Wednesday experienced its coldest February day in the last Five years with Santa Cruz recording a minimum temperature of 14.2 degrees Celsius. Many even thought it was the coldest day of the season, thanks to the windy conditions that persisted through the day.

The day began with Mumbaikars waking up to strong winds. The chill factor was the highest in the morning and the evening. The city is likely to witness similar weather conditions for some time, the weather bureau has said.

On Wednesday, the minimum temperature recorded in Colaba was 16.5 degrees C. The day-time temperatures were 27.9 and 26.5 degrees C at Colaba and Santa Cruz, respectively. The minimum temperature in Santa Cruz was two degrees below normal. The season's coldest day was January 29, when Santa Cruz recorded a low of 10 degrees Celsius. While being nowhere near the 8.5 degrees C recorded on February 8, 2008, Wednesday's temperature beat the lowest levels recorded in February in the previous three years (see box).

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the cold spell in the northern plains of the country is responsible for the chill in the city. "The western disturbance continues and has brought about a dip in the minimum temperature in most parts of northern India," said V K Rajeev, director of weather forecast at IMD, Mumbai.

"It felt really cold on Wednesday as the wind speed was high," said Rajeev. According to the IMD website, the wind speed recorded on the north Maharashtra coast was 20-25 knots, at times going up to even 30 knots. The weather bureau said the humidity levels in Mumbai were between 35% and 39% the whole day due to to dry winds from the northern landmass. "The chill is likely to continue for the next two days, after which the mercury level will return to normal. But there is another western disturbance on its way. Temperatures can dip again in another four-five days,