Why the weather in Pune feels much colder than it is right now

Why does it feel colder?

An index called RealFeel Temperature calculates how hot or cold the weather feels to the human body.

“If the atmosphere contains a lot of moisture, you may feel warmer at a particular temperature. The skin sweats, but the humid air does not let it dry quickly. At present, we are seeing the reverse phenomena in Maharashtra. The anticlockwise movements of the remnant of Cyclone Ditwah, which exists in Tamil Nadu, among others, is pulling the moisture from the air from our region as well, resulting in less moisture in the atmosphere. As a result, your sweat is drying faster and makes your skin feel colder,” says Anupam Kashyapi, former head of weather forecasting at IMD.

Clearly, at the same temperature, it is possible for you to feel warmer or colder if the air that surrounds you has more moisture or less, respectively. In the afternoon, though the temperature is hovering around the 30 degrees C mark, you are probably layered up and feeling that it is far colder in Pune. “Day temperature below 30 degrees C also expands your feeling for coldness,” says Kashyapi.

Yellow alert

On Wednesday, there was no alert for a cold wave in Maharashtra. “There is unlikely to be any more cold wave in the next few days, though the minimum temperature will remain low and likely be near cold wave conditions at isolated places ,” says Anupam Kashyapi, former head of weather forecasting at IMD.

He adds that the recent fluctuations in temperature were not unusual, given that we have experienced two cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and, at present, there are two upper air low- systems in the Western Himalayan region and a feeble third developing.

“Between December 3 and 5, the northerly wind, which brings cold air into Maharashtra, among others, will continue to blow but it will not be strong enough to cause a deep drop in temperature. There will be a cold wave in north India and even in Madhya Pradesh but Maharashtra is unlikely to see the mercury dipping to very low single digits,” says Kashyapi.