Parts of western suburbs see drizzle, air quality moderate

Mumbai: A drizzle on Tuesday morning took Mumbaikars by surprise. Parts of the western suburbs, especially Kandivli, Bandra and Borivli, witnessed light rainfall early in the morning but all through the day the sky remained overcast.
The Regional Meteorological Centre’s Colaba observatory recorded trace rainfall between April 4-5, while the Santacruz observatory recorded no rainfall.
V K Rajeev from the IMD, Mumbai, said lack of moisture led to the drizzle.“There is also a trough existing from Vidarbha onwards. The light rainfall Mumbai witnessed was confined to parts of the city. The maximum temperature is expected to stay in this range for two to three days and may rise after that,” said Rajeev.
Compared to Monday, when the maximum temperature recorded in Colaba was 31.8 degrees Celsius, it dropped to 30.1 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, which was 1.8 degree below normal. At the Santacruz observatory, the maximum temperature recorded on Tuesday was 32.1 degrees Celsius, which was 0.8 degree below normal.
The relative humidity in Colaba and Santacruz was 83% and 70% respectively. The minimum temperature recorded at both observatories was above normal. The minimum recorded at Colaba was 26 degrees Celsius, which was 1.9 degrees above normal, and at Santacruz it was 24.8 degrees Celsius, which was 1.8 degree above normal.
Many took to social media, tweeting and posting pictures of the drizzle. Many citizens said that when they felt that the summer was here to stay, unpredictable rain seemed to have staged a comeback. Mahendra Hemdev of the Marine Drive Residents’ Association said, “The sky remained overcast throughout Tuesday. However, there was no drizzle during the day.”
Meanwhile, the city’s air quality was moderate on Tuesday. Real-time data recorded by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) pegged the city’s overall air quality index (AQI) at 150. But it was way above the AQI range of ‘0-100’, considered safe for breathing. The air quality forecast is pegged at 149, which is in the moderate range, on Wednesday.