<p>Mumbai: The financial capital of Mumbai and its far suburbs are reeling under intense heat coupled with smog and humidity putting people at discomfort and pressing them to keep hydrated at all times. </p><p>Across Mumbai and the neighbouring larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad, people were seen at joints selling chaas (buttermilk), ganna-juice (sugarcane juice) and cold drinks. </p>.Heatwave in many areas in western states, above normal temperatures in north: IMD.<p>The temperatures hovered around 33 to 36 degrees Celsius in the weekend. </p><p>The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert and forecast “heat wave conditions in isolated pockets” in the MMR for March 13 and 14. </p><p>“Heat wave conditions very likely to prevail in isolated pockets in the districts of North Konkan,” according to the Mumbai-based Regional Meteorological Centre of the IMD.</p><p>On March 10, Mumbai sizzled at 40°C, which was 7.6 degrees above the normal average. </p><p>With this, the city qualified for severe heatwave conditions.</p><p>“A persistent anti-cyclonic circulation over Gujarat and adjoining areas has been pushing warm easterly winds towards the city and delaying the sea breeze, which brings down the temperatures across the city. While the system has now moved away, bringing respite but we have a bigger problem to deal with. This is a natural phenomenon that will keep recurring at regular intervals. However, the point to be noted is that under the warming climatic conditions, the city would be subjected to an increased number of heatwave days in the future as average temperatures are already high,” said Mahesh Palawat, Vice President-Meteorology and Climate Change, Skymet Weather.</p><p>The heat has arrived early and with little warning. Since the second half of February, temperatures across Northwest India have climbed well above seasonal norms, with isolated pockets already breaching heatwave thresholds and a growing number of stations placed on alert. With this, the spring season has once again remained absent from the Indian subcontinent. The India Meteorological Department has left little room for optimism — above-normal heatwave days are forecast across most of the country for the entire March-to-May season.</p><p>“Despite last year’s La Nina conditions that typically cool global temperatures, global warming is reshaping long-standing weather patterns. In 2025, the all-India annual mean land surface air temperature was 0.28°C higher than the 1991–2020 long-term average. This made 2025, in spite of being a La Niña year, the eighth warmest year since 1901,” according to a note prepared by Climate Trends. </p><p>This is not the first time global warming has outmuscled La Nina. Since 2020, four years have carried La Nina conditions, including an exceptional triple-dip event that persisted from the summer of 2020 through early 2023 — one of the longest on record. Under normal circumstances, La Nina would have pulled global temperatures down. Instead, relentless greenhouse gas emissions kept pushing them up, and each of those years still found its place among the warmest in recorded history.</p><p>“There is no doubt that climate change has reformed some of the typical impacts of La Niña. La Niña pulls down global temperatures, but a consistent rise in global temperatures in recent years has outgrown the cooling effect induced by the phenomenon. Even if the ocean temperatures were reducing due to La Niña, at the rate global warming is increasing, we hardly get to see the impact of the former,” added Palawat.</p>
<p>Mumbai: The financial capital of Mumbai and its far suburbs are reeling under intense heat coupled with smog and humidity putting people at discomfort and pressing them to keep hydrated at all times. </p><p>Across Mumbai and the neighbouring larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad, people were seen at joints selling chaas (buttermilk), ganna-juice (sugarcane juice) and cold drinks. </p>.Heatwave in many areas in western states, above normal temperatures in north: IMD.<p>The temperatures hovered around 33 to 36 degrees Celsius in the weekend. </p><p>The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert and forecast “heat wave conditions in isolated pockets” in the MMR for March 13 and 14. </p><p>“Heat wave conditions very likely to prevail in isolated pockets in the districts of North Konkan,” according to the Mumbai-based Regional Meteorological Centre of the IMD.</p><p>On March 10, Mumbai sizzled at 40°C, which was 7.6 degrees above the normal average. </p><p>With this, the city qualified for severe heatwave conditions.</p><p>“A persistent anti-cyclonic circulation over Gujarat and adjoining areas has been pushing warm easterly winds towards the city and delaying the sea breeze, which brings down the temperatures across the city. While the system has now moved away, bringing respite but we have a bigger problem to deal with. This is a natural phenomenon that will keep recurring at regular intervals. However, the point to be noted is that under the warming climatic conditions, the city would be subjected to an increased number of heatwave days in the future as average temperatures are already high,” said Mahesh Palawat, Vice President-Meteorology and Climate Change, Skymet Weather.</p><p>The heat has arrived early and with little warning. Since the second half of February, temperatures across Northwest India have climbed well above seasonal norms, with isolated pockets already breaching heatwave thresholds and a growing number of stations placed on alert. With this, the spring season has once again remained absent from the Indian subcontinent. The India Meteorological Department has left little room for optimism — above-normal heatwave days are forecast across most of the country for the entire March-to-May season.</p><p>“Despite last year’s La Nina conditions that typically cool global temperatures, global warming is reshaping long-standing weather patterns. In 2025, the all-India annual mean land surface air temperature was 0.28°C higher than the 1991–2020 long-term average. This made 2025, in spite of being a La Niña year, the eighth warmest year since 1901,” according to a note prepared by Climate Trends. </p><p>This is not the first time global warming has outmuscled La Nina. Since 2020, four years have carried La Nina conditions, including an exceptional triple-dip event that persisted from the summer of 2020 through early 2023 — one of the longest on record. Under normal circumstances, La Nina would have pulled global temperatures down. Instead, relentless greenhouse gas emissions kept pushing them up, and each of those years still found its place among the warmest in recorded history.</p><p>“There is no doubt that climate change has reformed some of the typical impacts of La Niña. La Niña pulls down global temperatures, but a consistent rise in global temperatures in recent years has outgrown the cooling effect induced by the phenomenon. Even if the ocean temperatures were reducing due to La Niña, at the rate global warming is increasing, we hardly get to see the impact of the former,” added Palawat.</p>