People in India and Pakistan are suffering from an early and severe heat wave. Temperatures across much of the region have risen well over 40 degrees and weather services in the two neighboring countries are issuing heat alerts. India has already experienced the warmest March since weather records began 122 years ago.
In New Delhi, sweaty people continued to drink water, sometimes with refreshing lemon, which they bought from small stalls throughout the city. Many tried to protect themselves under shade cloths and umbrellas.
Such heat is generally not uncommon in South Asia. But it is currently hitting the region much earlier than usual, where such high temperatures are usually only reached in May and June. The early heat wave is a warning sign of things to come in May and June, said director Dileep Mavalankar of the Gandhinagar Indian Institute of Public Health. Cold winds from the Arabian Sea are not coming, said meteorologist Sardar Sarfraz in the Pakistani city of Karachi.
According to an analysis by Mariam Zachariah and Friederike Otto of Imperial College London, extreme heat is occurring more frequently in India than before as a result of climate change. “Before the rise in global temperatures, we would have experienced the heat that India has experienced this month about once in 50 years,” said Mariam Zachariah. “Now this event occurs much more often – every four years. And unless greenhouse gas emissions are stopped, this event will occur even more often.”
The heat is affecting agriculture, among other things. The high temperatures also mean that those who can afford it tend to live indoors during the hottest hours of the day. They prefer to be out only early in the morning or in the evening. Some try to find a cooler place in the mountains. Recently there have also been fires due to heat, for example at a garbage dump in Delhi.