Mumbai’s summers are no longer just about rising temperatures. Increasing humidity, disappearing tree cover, endless concretisation and rapid vertical growth are changing how heat is experienced across the city. Even on days when temperatures appear “normal”, many Mumbaikars feel exhausted, dehydrated and suffocated outdoors.

To understand why the city feels far hotter than what thermometers show, mid-day spoke to meteorologists, climate experts and researchers about humidity levels, El Nino, urban heat islands, air quality, shrinking green cover and Mumbai’s changing skyline, and how all of these factors are intensifying heat stress across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.