india

Updated: Jun 02, 2019 21:05 IST

A severe heat wave is sweeping the northern Indian plains with 10 of the 15 hottest places in the world recorded from the region. The remaining five were from neighbouring Pakistan, turning the region warmest on the planet. In all this, the only consolation was that the place, which received maximum rainfall across the world in the last 24 hours was also in India --- Agartala.

While the global average surface temperature between 1880 and 2018 increased by 0.6 degree Celsius, for India it was 0.8 degree Celsius, according to a report by El Dorado Weather in April 2019. The website also said Churu and Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan were the two hottest places in the world followed by Jacobabad in Pakistan on Sunday. Other than places in Rajasthan, other Indian town in the list of the hottest places was Banda (47.4 degrees) in Uttar Pradesh and Narnual (47.2 degrees) in Haryana.

The long spell of dry weather in many parts, especially Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh, have resulted in severe drinking water and farm crisis. The IMD on Friday said that these regions have faced rainfall deficiency of up to 79% as compared to last year. According to the Central Water Commission data, the water level in most of the dams in the two regions was less than 10%,the lowest in the last 10 years.

Mrutunjay Mahopatra, director general of IMD’s meteorology, said if one analyses temperature data for a longer period of time there has been a rise in both maximum and minimum temperatures, which increases surface heat, leading to longer spells of heat wave. “We have noticed that in the last two decades or so the frequency of heat wave in the country has increased,” he said.

On the present climate conditions, Mahopatra said that heat wave situation is likely to improve in the next few two days with the onset of western disturbances which will bring rain and thunderstorms in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal leading to change in the present wind direction.

“The present heat wave is because of dry westerly winds gaining heat from the deserts in Pakistan and Rajasthan. We expect the westerlies to lose steam as winds from the Bay of Bengal and north-west will take over bringing relief to people,” he said.

According to temperature data available with the United States based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the 15 of the 18 years of this century has been the warmest since 1880, the first year for which surface temperature data is available, showing that the globe was warming at a much faster rate than anticipated by climatologists.

In fact, 2018 --- 0.39 degree higher surface temperature than between 1981 and 2010 --- was recorded as the warmest year in India since 1901 and the IMD forecasts indicate that 2019 could be a notch warmer than the previous year if the monsoon rainfall is not as per prediction of near normal.

A new study published in May 2018 in journal scientific report said that the warming trend in north-western and south-western India started in the 1970s and has accelerated 2000 onwards. The study was based on data from 395 met stations across the country, in which maximum, minimum and daily mean temperatures were analysed for summer, monsoon and winter months.

“The decadal mean of daily maximum temperature for April and May in the 2010s is 40 and 42 degree Celsius over large parts of India. In the 1950s, the area of high temperature was limited only to south-central India touching 41 degrees,” the report said, adding that the hot zone in India is from Rajasthan-Gujarat in the western side till coast of Andhra Pradesh and north Bengal in the east and from southern Haryana till Vidarbha in Maharashtra.

According to information provided to Parliament in February 2019, 6,167 heat-related deaths were reported in India between 2010 and 2018 with 2015 reporting maximum fatalities --- 2,081.

The IMD defined heat waves differently for varying topographies: in the plains, the maximum temperature has to be 40 degrees Celsius or above; in coastal areas, 37 degrees Celsius or more; and in hill regions, 30 degrees Celsius or more. Heat wave is also declared when temperature rises above 45 degree Celsius and severe heat wave for regions seeing more than 47 degree Celsius for the day.

On Sunday, two-thirds of India was in the grip of a heat wave with mercury breaching the 45 degree mark in several cities, which include Delhi, Jaipur, Kota, Hyderabad and Lucknow. Even places, which are expected to be cooler in summers, such as Shimla, Nainital, Srinagar, Pune and Ooty recorded temperatures two to four degrees higher than normal. Studies based on IMD data shows that the number of hot days in hill stations has increased in the past two decades and temperature in places such as Mussoorie in Uttarakhand touched 38 degree Celsius.