City seethes as easterly waves linger

Sweltering weather and rising temperature have taken over Mumbai ever since the city experienced sporadic rains last week.

Sweltering weather and rising temperature have taken over Mumbai ever since the city experienced sporadic rains last week.

High humidity is a result of the easterly waves still very active over the southern peninsula-despite the cyclonic system of last week having weakened-the India Metrological Department (IMD) officials said.

On Monday, the Met department recorded 36.7 degrees and 36 degrees Celsius maximum temperature in Colaba and Santacruz respectively. The minimum temperature recorded was 23.3 and 22.9 in the city and suburbs. Humidity in Colaba hovered over a high 78 per cent.

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K Sathidevi, director of IMD-Mumbai said: “Easterly waves are still blowing over the southern peninsula. The waves are mostly passing over the lower latitudes, but also partially touching the southern parts of Maharashtra. This is causing showers in certain areas of the state and raising the temperature over others.” The cyclonic storm “khaimuk” developed over the Bay of Bengal off Andhra Pradesh on November 14. Moving in a north-westerly direction, it weakened and crossed south coastal Andhra Pradesh on November 16 as a deep depression. Under its influence, widespread showers with isolated heavy rainfall occurred over coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema. In Maharashtra too, rainfall was recorded in areas such as Pune, Nashik, Dhule, Satara, Sangli Sholapur, Aurangabad, Nanded and Latur. Mumbai and Thane experienced rainfall on November 19.

However, while rains still continued over south India and some parts of southern Maharashtra, mercury and humidity rose in Mumbai. Sathidevi said: “Similar temperatures have prevailed over Mumbai earlier too. However, high humidity is making the city seethe.”