Toll tops 1,150 in Pakistan's deadliest heat wave on record

Doyle Rice | USA TODAY

The death toll in Pakistan's deadliest heat wave on record now topped 1,100, causing morgues to overflow, Reuters reported Friday.

Power outages added to the misery, leaving many without fans, water or light at the beginning of Ramadan, when many Muslims do not eat or drink during daylight hours, according to Reuters.

"By Friday, at least 1,150 people have died in the government-run hospitals," said Anwar Kazmi of the Edhi Foundation, a private charity that runs a network of ambulances and morgues.

The New York Times reported the heat wave has sent more than 14,000 people into government and private hospitals in Karachi, the nation's largest city.

The hot weather comes just weeks after torrid temperatures caused nearly 2,200 deaths in neighboring India, raising fears that South Asia could be seeing some of the devastating effects of human-caused climate change, the Associated Press reported.

Pakistan's previous deadliest heat wave was in 1991, when 523 people died, EM-DAT, the International Disaster Database, reported.

This heat wave looks to be easing slightly, as high temperatures are forecast in the 90s after several days of temperatures over 100 degrees, according to Weather Underground.

The worst of the heat peaked Saturday, when the high temperature hit 112.6 degrees in Karachi; the heat index topping out at a dangerously high 121 degrees.

"Since the monsoon has been slower to get into northwestern India, Karachi has been tremendously dry with intense heat," stated AccuWeather meteorologist Anthony Sagliani.

Cooling monsoon rains are likely to arrive in Pakistan by mid-July, which should mean the region won't see any more temperatures this summer as high as were recorded last weekend, meteorologist Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground said.

The Pakistan heat wave will join this year's heat wave in India as one of the 10 deadliest in world history.

"The deadly heat wave that has killed several hundred people in Karachi, Pakistan, is clearly a harbinger of things to come with the changing climate," Saleemul Huq, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh and a prominent climate scientist, told the Associated Press earlier this week.

"Even if this particular event cannot be unequivocally attributed to human-induced climate change, we can certainly expect such heat waves with greater frequency in future," he said.