Winds from sea cause heat: Met

The Meteorological department has attributed the severe heat felt in the city over the past week despite around normal maximum temperatures to high humidity levels brought on by winds originating from the sea. The maximum temperature in the island city has been around its normal of 32 degrees and suburbs around 32 degrees (against normal 33 degrees) in the past week. Colaba recorded 32.8°C on Monday and Santacruz 32.3 °C.

Relative humidity levels,however,have been high — around 90% in Colaba and mostly above 80% in Santacruz in the morning and not less than 70% in Colaba and around 63% in Santacruz in the evening. The relative humidity levels at 5.30 pm on Monday were Colaba (81%) and Santacruz (69%).

“Nowadays,the winds in the city are north westerly or sometimes even westerly,which come from the sea as opposed to earlier. They bring a lot of moisture with them,driving up humidity levels. Thus,even though the maximum temperatures are around normal,due to humidity,the feeling of heat is more… There will be a slight rise in maximum temperatures after one or two days,” said VK Rajeev,director (weather forecast),IMD.