Mumbai, Dec 17 (PTI) A cold wave is sweeping across parts of Maharashtra with the minimum temperature slipping to single digit at several places in the state, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday.
Baramati in Pune district recorded a minimum temperature of 7.8 degrees Celsius, while Pune and Nashik districts recorded 8 degrees Celsius.
The mercury dipped in Jalgaon to 8.3 degrees Celsius, while Parbhani, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv recorded the minimum temperature of 9.4, 10 and 10.2 degrees Celsius, respectively, as per the IMD.
Malegaon in Nashik district recorded a minimum temperature of 9.8 degrees Celsius.
In state capital Mumbai, the Santacruz observatory (representative of suburbs) recorded a minimum temperature of 15 degrees Celsius, while Colaba (in south Mumbai) clocked 20 degrees Celsius, the IMD said.
According to the IMD, the mercury levels will gradually rise over the next few days.
In Nakuleshwar Borgaon village in Latur, a sugarcane farmer was shocked to find his field covered in a white blanket of frosty dew, a phenomenon that is very rare to see in this otherwise parched district in central Maharashtra.
When the cultivator, Vitthal Salunke, went to his sugarcane field early on Monday morning, surprise awaited him as he watered the farm. Soon, he found that the entire field was covered in a white blanket of frost as the winter chill had turned the dew into snow.
Salunke said that for a moment, he felt that he was in Kashmir.
He said he immediately checked the local temperature on his mobile phone, which showed that it was 6 degrees Celsius.
Talking about it, he said, "I have been farming for 30 years, but this is the first time I witnessed frozen dew turning my two-acre field into a sheet of frost."
The minimum temperature will gradually rise over the next three to four days due to the easterlies that will bring in moisture, Sushma Nair, scientist at the IMD Mumbai said.