Eastern Eye (UK)

Scientists: Climate change increasing heatwave frequency

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SOUTH Asia’s deadly heatwave in March and April was made 30 times more likely because of climate change, scientists reported on Monday (23).

As April temperatur­es hit nearly 50 degrees Celsius in parts of northern India and Pakistan, at least 90 people died from heat-related causes, officials have said. The heatwave, which had delivered record temperatur­es in India in March, also badly damaged the country’s

winter wheat crop.

Without climate change, such heatwaves would be “extraordin­arily rare,” according to scientists with World Weather Attributio­n, an internatio­nal research collaborat­ion that works to tease out how much climate change plays a role in specific weather events. Now, with the average temperatur­e having warmed about 1.2 degrees Celsius above the preindustr­ial average, such heatwaves in south Asia are 30 times more likely to occur.

And that frequency is expected to increase as global temperatur­es continue to rise.

For example, “in a 2C warmer world, what is a 1-in-100 year event now can be as frequent as a 1-in-5 year event,” said hydroclima­tologist Arpita Mondal at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, in a news briefing.

To conduct their analysis, the scientists compared temperatur­e data readings for the months of March and April dating back several decades with what conditions might have been without climate change, based on computer simulation­s. “People in south Asia are used to some level of hot temperatur­es,” said Roop Singh, climate risk advisor at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. “But when it gets to 45C or over, it becomes really difficult to carry out regular activities.”

Daily wage labourers, such as street vendors and constructi­on workers, Singh said, are hard hit. She said experts expect the heatwave’s death toll to rise as more data is reported to officials.

 ?? ?? ESPITE April te atures t nearly degree Celsiu in part of orthern India an Pakistan
ESPITE April te atures t nearly degree Celsiu in part of orthern India an Pakistan

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