Temperatures reached 50C in India in May 2020
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Millions of Indians are experiencing a brutal heatwave with temperatures set to soar to 44C in Delhi.
“Temperatures are rising rapidly in the country, and rising much earlier than usual,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned state chief ministers on Wednesday.
Aprita Mondal, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, said climate change is “beyond doubt” a contributing factor to the extreme heat.
Among the worst-hit areas have been the typically humid eastern Indian states, which saw temperatures above 43C on Wednesday. Temperatures in Delhi are set to soar to 44C this week.
“Rarely it happens that nearly the whole country is reeling under [a] heatwave,” she added.
Mumbai temperatures hit 37C on Wednesday.
Heatwaves in India are common, especially in the months of May and June, but this year the heat has started early with the country seeing its hottest March in 122 years.
Sweltering heat continued into April, with a hot weather pattern persisting in many parts of India over the last month.
The Centre for Science and Environment, found early heatwaves to have affected around 15 Indian states, including the mountainous northern state of Himachal Pradesh.
The unrelenting heat could affect the global supply chain, with farmers saying unexpected high temperatures affect their wheat harvest.
Heatwaves also see a surge in demand for power, leading to outages in many states and sparking fears there could be coal shortages.
Mr Modi said there was an increased risk of fires due to the hot temperatures.
“We are seeing increasing incidents of fires in various places, in jungles, important buildings and in hospitals, in the past few days,” Mr Modi said.
Experts fear India is seeing hotter, more frequent heatwaves that last over a longer period than ever before.
Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, told the BBC that atmospheric factors have led to the current heatwave, which is then compounded by global warming.
“That’s the root cause for the increase in heatwaves,” he said.
