‘India becoming more prone to extreme hot weather’

By Vishwam Sankaran :

NEW DELHI,

According to researchers, between 1976 and 2018, large parts of India experienced on average nearly 10 extreme hot days in April-June season, which they said, approximately 25 per cent more than in the 1951-1975 period.

EXTREME heat events such as those observed in Western Europe in 2003 and in Russia in 2010, which led to the death of nearly 1,000 people and multiple crop failures, are becoming more common in India, according to a study. The study, published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’, identified the factors leading to hot extreme weather events in India. It assessed the change in frequency and intensity of such hot extremes over the country between the periods 1951-1975, and 1976-2018 using high-resolution daily maximum temperature dataset from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Analysing this dataset, which was collected by nearly 395 quality control stations all over India, the scientists, including those from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune, explored the driving mechanisms responsible for extreme hot temperatures in the country. “The results reveal a widespread significant increase in the frequency of hot days overall India, except over the Indo-Gangetic plains,” study lead author Manish Kumar Joshi from IITM told PTI.

According to the researchers, between 1976 and 2018, large parts of India, except the indo-Gangetic Plains, experienced on average nearly 10 extreme hot days in the April-June season, which they said is approximately 25 per cent more than in the 1951-1975 period. Before the 1976 climate shift, they said eastern and southern parts of India experienced significant increase in the frequency of hot days. However, after this climate shift, the study noted that hot days have significantly increased. Joshi and his team believe this indicates a spatial shift of temperature increasing trends in India, particularly in the frequency of hot days.