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Informist, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026

By Shreya Shetty

MUMBAI – Mumbai woke up after New Year's Eve celebrations to light showers in the early morning hours, which significantly improved the air quality over the city, bringing much-needed relief to citizens. With spells of light, scattered rainfall likely for the rest of Thursday over the city and suburbs, citizens are expected to enjoy better quality of air for the next two days at least, a scientist at the India Meteorological Department's Mumbai regional centre said.

Under the influence of an active western disturbance, which lies to the northwest of the country, a trough formed during the second half of Wednesday, which extended into the Arabian Sea, the scientist said. This trough drew in moisture from the sea and led to the unexpected spell of rainfall over Mumbai, which also stretched into some parts of Thane and Navi Mumbai.

"This is unseasonal rainfall, but this is expected when there is a very active western disturbance," the scientist said, adding, "It is not that unusual, all such events just vary on the intensity of weather systems." 

Though unexpected, the showers helped settle the large articles of dust suspended in air, clearing up the sky over the city. "The rains washed out most dust particles from the inversion layer at the lowest layer of atmosphere over the city, which had been trapped between other air layers," the scientist said. There had been no strong wind movements over the city this week, which would otherwise have dispersed the stationary layer of pollutants, they said.

The city choked on polluted air for most of this week, with Wednesday's air quality index recorded at 130, in the 'moderate' category. After the early morning showers on Thursday, air quality over most parts of Mumbai and suburbs was in the 'satisfactory' category, ranging from 54 to 97, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board.  End

With inputs from J. Navya Sruthi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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