An unusual heatwave has been engulfing India and Pakistan for two months now. However, the heat and humidity now exceeded the survival threshold for people outside.
We can now literally die from the heat on Earth. India and Pakistan, for example, are suffocating. The two countries experience record springtime with temperatures sometimes exceeding 40 degrees in New Delhi in April. And the trend doesn’t seem ready to reverse, with values between 43° and 45°C in New Delhi, and maybe 50 °C on the Pakistani borderbelieve Science and Life.
49.5°C: this was the temperature recorded on May 1, 2022 in Nawabshah #Pakistan. Up to 47.2°C in Banda #India and Jacobabad #Pakistan April 30, 2022.
44.6°C: this is the AVERAGE TEMPERATURE for the afternoon of April 2022 in Nawabshah (hottest month of April on record!). pic.twitter.com/1zSFgVMFv5
— Dr. Serge Zaka (Dr. Zarge) (@SergeZaka) May 2, 2022
Not forgetting that monsoons, with increasing humidity levels in the context of climate change, can create This area is difficult to live in long term. As a reminder in 2018, the strongest monsoon in a century killed at least 400 people. moreover, according to IPCCSouth Asia is the region most affected by the increase in heatwaves linked to global warming
What is the tolerance limit for humans?
The scientists rated it at 35 degrees “wet bulb” (Tw) for healthy people. This value takes into account the humidity of the air to measure our resistance to heat, details The Huffington Post. The human body does not tolerate heat and humidity well. A study of I’American Physiological Society published in January 2022 confirms this. The latter measures the ability of healthy young adults to perform simple tasks in six different extreme weather conditions. Several hours of experimentation revealed that none of the participants reached the 35° Tw limit.
At a temperature of less than 35°C, without being able to cool down, in about six hours, the body will die.
Deadly threshold exceeded in Asia
Indeed, on the continent, this threshold had been exceeded in recent days. And the consequences have been dramatic: in the Indian state of Maharashtra, 25 people have died since March from the heat. And heatwave-related deaths in India, which has fallen victim to the deadliest heatwaves in 2015 and 2019, have increased by more than 60% since 1980, according to India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences, as reported by our colleagues from Huffington Post.
Other consequences: more fires. Last week, World reported the damage caused by a large landfill fire in India. “Under the influence of heat, the methane produced by decaying organic matter is ignited. The capital city of India, which, like other South Asian countries, is at the heart of a record heatwave, is shrouded in thick acrid smoke” . More than 7,800 forest fires were reported within three days last weekend in areas of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya, Pradesh and more, alert Future Science.
\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf3 India: a giant fire has been raging for 4 days at a garbage dump near Delhi. The country experienced a heatwave not seen for more than 120 years, with temperatures exceeding 50 °C. The human and natural consequences can be dire. pic.twitter.com/5SwhjgsmIK
— ???? ???????? ??? ???????? (@72pow) April 30, 2022
Problems, and not least, were also raised by our comrades from National Geographic : power plant running out of coal and it is no longer enough to meet the demand because with the heat wave, there is a sharp increase in the demand for electricity, to the point of shortage.
India is one of the countries in the world where the frequency of heatwaves has increased the most in 40 years: the Indian meteorological service counted 413 days with temperatures above 40°C between 1981 and 1990, and 600 days between 2011 and 2020, details Future Science. Therefore, most of the world’s population will have no choice but to leave these places under the most extreme conditions, Friederike Otto warned, from Imperial College London, to Huffington Post.
