Pune Weather Update: Clouds bring down day temperature, high humidity negates relief

On Monday, clouds covered the city skies under the influence of Cyclone Remal over the Bay of Bengal, causing a significant drop in maximum temperature by over 10 degrees from a few days ago, bringing it down to 29.9°C, the season’s lowest. 

Maximum temperatures across most areas of the city fell to nearly 29-30°C, a welcome drop from the over 40°C recorded just days earlier.

Despite the cloud cover providing respite from the harsh sun, Pune residents found little relief as humidity levels soared to an uncomfortable 75-80%. The increased moisture in the westerly winds contributed to this surge in humidity. IMD officials have not ruled out the possibility of light rain in the coming days.

An officer at IMD Pune, explained, “The change to partly cloudy skies in Pune was due to the effect of the severe cyclone over the Bay of Bengal. The cloud bands feeding the cyclone were responsible for the shift in weather in Maharashtra lately. Also, the humidity has gone up, and the wind speed has increased over the last two to three days. These are primarily westerly/northwesterly winds coming from the Arabian Sea, which are relatively cooler but bring in moisture as well.”

He added, “We expect the monsoon to arrive over Kerala in the next five to six days. Once that happens, pre-monsoon rain activity may increase over peninsular India, including parts of Maharashtra.” 

He also noted that Cyclone Remal had been pulling westerly winds from the Arabian Sea. “In the process, these winds also got stronger as they were being pulled to the centre of the system. This is called the ‘distant effect’ of the system over the Bay of Bengal.”

As of Monday, Cyclone Remal had weakened to a cyclonic storm after making landfall late Sunday night. It had a significant impact on South and North 24 Parganas of West Bengal, partially crippling life in Kolkata on Monday morning, the first working day of the week.

Joyville