Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, May 10: Mumbai’s Ram Mandir area in Oshiwara recorded the city’s highest maximum temperature on Sunday at 39.2 degrees Celsius, marking the second highest temperature recorded this season.

According to weather officials, Oshiwara has consistently registered the highest temperatures among the automated weather stations installed across Mumbai.

The station had earlier recorded 42.5 degrees Celsius on March 9 during the city’s first heatwave of the season.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the Santacruz observatory recorded a maximum temperature of 35.4 degrees Celsius and a minimum temperature of 26.2 degrees Celsius on Sunday, while humidity levels touched 85 per cent.

Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region have remained under a yellow alert for “hot and humid conditions” since last week, with the warning now extended till May 11.

According to the IMD’s local forecast for Mumbai city and suburbs over the next 48 hours, skies are expected to remain mainly clear while hot and humid conditions are likely to continue.

The department said maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to remain around 36 degrees Celsius and 28 degrees Celsius respectively.

Experts attributed the sharp variation between citywide temperatures and local weather stations to the urban heat island effect.

During a recent interaction with the media, Pradeep Awate said the increase in heatwaves in Mumbai could be linked to rapid loss of open spaces, green cover and water bodies, along with a rise in urban construction.

According to him, Mumbai lost nearly 81 per cent of its open land, 40 per cent of its green cover and around 30 per cent of its water bodies between 1991 and 2018, while the built-up area increased by 66 per cent.

He added that the city also witnessed an average rise of around two degrees Celsius in temperature during the same period.

Meanwhile, interior regions of Maharashtra, especially Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha, remain under alert for thunderstorms accompanied by lightning, rainfall and gusty winds over the next two days.

IMD officials said the present weather conditions are being influenced by a trough in easterly winds extending from an upper air cyclonic circulation over the southeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Lakshadweep region towards Marathwada through coastal Karnataka, north interior Karnataka and Madhya Maharashtra.