Riding on the cold wave, minimum temp crested on Wednesday; weathermen warn of a further dip in coming 48 hours

If February made you shiver yesterday, it wasn't only because Don McLean crooned so in the folksy American Pie, but because the temperature had dipped to 14.2 degrees Celsius - the lowest the city has endured in the last three years in the month of February. Even the maximum temperature, which had climbed to 31 degrees Celsius, has once again plunged to 27.4. On Wednesday, the minimum and maximum temperatures recorded at the Santacruz weather bureau were 14.2 and 28.5 degrees Celsius. The same measured at Colaba weather station were 16.5 and 27.4 respectively.

"Due to the cold wave, the temperature is further going to dip to 12 degrees Celsius in the next 24 hours," said an official of the India Meteorological department (IMD). The winter chills had begun to subside after January 29, the coldest January day in the last 10 years with the mercury sinking to 10 degrees Celsius. After that, the temperature had shot up to 16 degrees Celsius and above. "Due to westerly winds, the temperature is going down and we expect it will dip further by one degree in the next one or two days.

This will continue for the next 48 hours," said V K Rajeev, director, IMD (Western Region). Asked about the extreme fluctuations in the weather, he said, "Due to some unfavorable winds, the maximum temperature had shot up. However this is a normal phenomenon." If the forecast is true, and the temperature does fall to 12 degrees or so, it will be recorded as the second coldest February day of the last 10 years after 2008.