Asia in the grip of brutal heatwave
Asia remains in the grip of a blistering heatwave, chiming with predictions from climate scientists that 2023 could be the world ’ s hottest year.
In an ominous sign ahead of the northern hemisphere summer, an emerging El Niño weather pattern is pushing the mercury to unprecedented levels in the southern parts of the continent.
Vietnam reported its highest temperature of 44.2°C over the weekend, triggering power shortage warnings, while Laos also likely broke records. The Philippines cut classroom hours after the heat index reached the danger zone, reflecting a potentially deadly combination of heat and humidity.
The scorching temperatures follow a pattern of increasing extreme weather — caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — that is sending the world into uncharted territory. The sweltering conditions are testing the ability of governments to protect public health and also to prevent big disruptions to agriculture and power generation.
El Niño — characterised by warmer ocean temperatures across the Pacific — has farreaching effects on weather patterns around the world.
It could bring relief to drought-parched areas of Argentina and the southern US, while blanketing parts of Asia and Australia with hotter, drier conditions. Coffee, sugar, palm oil and cocoa crops would be especially vulnerable.
Prolonged dryness across Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand is due to suppressed rainfall over the past winter, said Tieh-Yong Koh, an associate professor and weather and climate scientist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
“Because dry soil heats up faster than moist soil, a hot anomaly naturally forms as spring arrives,” he said, adding that this has been worsened by global warming over the past decades.
Temperatures in Thailand remained above 40°C in many northern and central regions over much of last week, pushing power demand to a fresh peak. Businesses and banks have asked the government to prepare an action plan to deal with a potential drought that they say might last for three years.
Rainfall in Malaysia may be as much as 40% lower in some areas, which could put palm oil production at risk in one of the world ’ s biggest producers of the commodity.
Authorities are closely monitoring the return of forest fires and air pollution.
An El Niño event in 2015 caused a particularly bad episode of haze that was one of the worst environmental disasters in Southeast Asia.
Elsewhere in Asia, scorching temperatures have roasted parts of China, India and Bangladesh over the past few weeks.
Yunnan province, an important aluminium hub in southwest China, suffered its worst drought in a decade in April.
India is on alert for more heatwaves after soaring temperatures in April prompted school closures in some states and caused at least 11 people to die of heat stroke after attending an event. /
BECAUSE DRY SOIL HEATS UP FASTER THAN MOIST SOIL, A HOT ANOMALY NATURALLY FORMS AS SPRING ARRIVES
Tieh-Yong Koh Climate scientist