News Analysis India

Tag: Heat Wave

  • Goa heat wave: Schools shut down at noon

    By PTI

    PANAJI: Schools conducted classes only till 12 noon on Thursday in Goa due to a heat wave, an official said.

    A circular issued by state Director of Education Shailesh Sinai Zingade said the heat wave will continue for another day as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), due to which classes will end at 12 noon on Friday as well.

    “Because of the strengthening of easterly winds, clear sky conditions and delay in setting time of sea breeze, the maximum temperature over Goa is likely to remain 4-6 degrees Celsius higher than its normal value.

    Persistence of these conditions is likely to satisfy the criteria of heat wave over the region March 8 and 9,” the IMD’s Goa observatory stated.

    “Maximum temperatures are likely to fall gradually by 2-3 degrees Celsius from March 11 onwards,” the IMD added.

    PANAJI: Schools conducted classes only till 12 noon on Thursday in Goa due to a heat wave, an official said.

    A circular issued by state Director of Education Shailesh Sinai Zingade said the heat wave will continue for another day as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), due to which classes will end at 12 noon on Friday as well.

    “Because of the strengthening of easterly winds, clear sky conditions and delay in setting time of sea breeze, the maximum temperature over Goa is likely to remain 4-6 degrees Celsius higher than its normal value.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Persistence of these conditions is likely to satisfy the criteria of heat wave over the region March 8 and 9,” the IMD’s Goa observatory stated.

    “Maximum temperatures are likely to fall gradually by 2-3 degrees Celsius from March 11 onwards,” the IMD added.

  • Wheat production drops due to March heat wave

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: India’s 2022 wheat production reduced by 3 per cent due to the heat wave in March, the government’s estimates say, even as an analysis based on climate models puts the figure at 4.5 per cent, with some of the major grain bowl states taking a hit of 10-15 per cent.

    India is the second largest wheat producer in the world, and the heat wave led the government to pause its export. The heat wave has reduced India’s 2022 wheat production by 4.5 per cent compared to a normal-weather year, according to a statistical model built by Balsher Singh Sidhu from the University of British Columbia-Vancouver, using historical weather and wheat production data from 1966-2017, which is available freely from ICRISAT and Indian Meteorological Department. 

    The paper in pre-prints focuses on five wheat-producing states Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan which account for around 90 per cent of India’s wheat production. “While all five states are estimated to have experienced average yield losses of 4-6 per cent, some regions like Rampur, Bareilly, and Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and Raipur in erstwhile Madhya Pradesh may be looking at 10-15 percent less production compared to a normal year. More alarmingly, some crop-cutting experiments, like those from Punjab, have reported yield losses of up to 30 per cent in certain places,” it said.

    The agriculture ministry’s fourth advance estimate for the year released Wednesday said India’s wheat production is projected to have reduced by nearly 3 per cent to 1,068.4 lakh metric tonne and the reason attributed was a heat wave.

    NEW DELHI: India’s 2022 wheat production reduced by 3 per cent due to the heat wave in March, the government’s estimates say, even as an analysis based on climate models puts the figure at 4.5 per cent, with some of the major grain bowl states taking a hit of 10-15 per cent.

    India is the second largest wheat producer in the world, and the heat wave led the government to pause its export. The heat wave has reduced India’s 2022 wheat production by 4.5 per cent compared to a normal-weather year, according to a statistical model built by Balsher Singh Sidhu from the University of British Columbia-Vancouver, using historical weather and wheat production data from 1966-2017, which is available freely from ICRISAT and Indian Meteorological Department. 

    The paper in pre-prints focuses on five wheat-producing states Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan which account for around 90 per cent of India’s wheat production. “While all five states are estimated to have experienced average yield losses of 4-6 per cent, some regions like Rampur, Bareilly, and Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and Raipur in erstwhile Madhya Pradesh may be looking at 10-15 percent less production compared to a normal year. More alarmingly, some crop-cutting experiments, like those from Punjab, have reported yield losses of up to 30 per cent in certain places,” it said.

    The agriculture ministry’s fourth advance estimate for the year released Wednesday said India’s wheat production is projected to have reduced by nearly 3 per cent to 1,068.4 lakh metric tonne and the reason attributed was a heat wave.

  • Heat waves on the rise in India, Andhra Pradesh worst-hit

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Heat wave events have been gradually increasing in the country in the last three decades with 660 such events causing 12,273 fatalities, said a research paper.

    “The heat wave events have shown a rising trend, whereas no significant rising or declining trend was observed in the heat wave. In fatality density, top five states are Chandigarh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha. Regionally, annual fatality rate has varied from 0.66 (peninsula region) to 0.02 (hilly region),” said the paper published in Current Science.

    The research used Disastrous Weather Events reports’ statistics for the period 1978-2014. The analysis shows that only five states — Andhra Pradesh (42 per cent), Rajasthan (17 per cent), Odisha (10 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (7 per cent) and Bihar (7 per cent) have accounted more than 80 per cent of the heat wave fatalities, although nine states namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, Mizoram, Uttarakhand and Goa have never reported heat wave events.

    Each event has resulted in about 104 fatalities in Andhra Prades. Majority of events have been witnessed in April, May and June months. The maximum count of events has been observed in Maharashtra state followed by Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.

    Region wise analysis shows that the maximum count of heat wave events has been detected in northwest (30 per cent) followed by central northeast (28 per cent) and central west (19 per cent) regions, whereas least over hilly (1 per cent).

    Conversely, peninsula has experienced roughly 42 per cent of the total fatalities followed by central northeast (27 per cent) and northwest (21 per cent) regions, while hilly region accounts almost negligible fatalities followed by northeast (4 per cent) and central west (6 per cent). Remarkably, the peninsula observed the highest fatalities per event (77 fatalities).

    Andhra Pradesh has the maximum fatality rate per million population per year followed by Rajasthan, Odisha, Chandigarh and Punjab state.  Fatality rate varies from 0.66 (peninsula) to 0.02 (hilly region) per year.

  • Heat wave events on rise in India, Andhra Pradesh among worst-hit states

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Heat wave events have been gradually increasing in the country in the last three decades with 660 such events causing 12,273 fatalities, said a research paper.  

    “The heat wave events have shown a rising trend, whereas no significant rising or declining trend was observed in the heat wave. In fatality density, top five states are Chandigarh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha. Regionally, annual fatality rate has varied from 0.66 (peninsula region) to 0.02 (hilly region),” said the paper.

    The paper published in scientific journal Current Science used ‘Disastrous Weather Events’ reports statistics for the period 1978–2014. The analysis shows that only five states — Andhra Pradesh (42%), Rajasthan (172%), Odisha (102%), Uttar Pradesh (72%) and Bihar (72%) have accounted more than 80% of the heat wave fatalities, although nine states namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, Mizoram, Uttarakhand and Goa have never reported heat wave events.

    Interestingly, each event has resulted in about 104 fatalities in Andhra Pradesh state. Majority of events have been witnessed in April, May and June months. Maximum count of events has been observed in Maharashtra state followed by Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.

    Region wise analysis shows that the maximum count of heat wave events has been detected in northwest (30%) followed by central northeast (28%) and central west (192%) regions, whereas least over hilly (12%).  

    Conversely, peninsula has experienced roughly 422% of the total fatalities followed by central northeast (272%) and northwest (212%) regions, while hilly region accounts almost negligible fatalities followed by northeast (42%) and central west (62%). Remarkably, the peninsula observed the highest fatalities per event (77 fatalities).

    While Andhra Pradesh has the maximum fatality rate per million population per year followed by Rajasthan, Odisha, Chandigarh and Punjab state. The annual heat wave event rate was found in northwest and central west regions. Fatality rate varies from 0.66 (peninsula region) to 0.02 (hilly region) per annum.

    A noticeable variation in the count of male fatalities over women and children has been detected. Higher male fatalities may be accredited to their higher involvement in outdoor works than women and children.

  • 2020 was one of three warmest years on record: World Meteorological Organisation

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: 2020 was one of the three warmest years on record, despite a cooling La Niña event as the global average temperature was about 1.2 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level, according to a new report compiled by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

    Extreme weather combined with COVID-19 in a double blow for millions of people in 2020. The six years since 2015 have been the warmest on record. 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record.

    “It has been 28 years since the World Meteorological Organization issued the first state of the climate report in 1993, due to the concerns raised at that time about projected climate change. While understanding of the climate system and computing power have increased since then, the basic message remains the same and we now have 28 more years of data that show significant temperature increases over land and sea as well as other changes like sea-level rise, melting of sea ice and glaciers and changes in precipitation patterns,” said WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas.

    ALSO READ | Amid COVID-19 and climate change, world leaders call for urgent action on adolescent wellbeing

    The report on the State of the Global Climate 2020 documents indicators of the climate system, including greenhouse gas concentrations, increasing land and ocean temperatures, sea-level rise, melting ice and glacier retreat and extreme weather. It also highlights impacts on socio-economic development, migration and displacement, food security and land and marine ecosystems.

    The report comes ahead of the April 22-23 virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, convened by the United States of America. President Biden is seeking to galvanize efforts by the major economies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet the targets of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to keep temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, and to 1.5°C if possible.

    “This report shows that we have no time to waste.  The climate is changing, and the impacts are already too costly for people and the planet.  This is the year for action.  Countries need to commit to net zero emissions by 2050.  They need to submit, well ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, ambitious national climate plans that will collectively cut global emissions by 45 per cent compared to 2010 levels by 2030.  And they need to act now to protect people against the disastrous effects of climate change,” said the UN Secretary-General.

    In 2020, COVID-19 added a new and unwelcome dimension to weather, climate and water-related hazards, with wide-ranging combined impacts on human health and well-being. Mobility restrictions, economic downturns and disruptions to the agricultural sector exacerbated the effects of extreme weather and climate events along the entire food supply chain, elevating levels of food insecurity and slowing the delivery of humanitarian assistance. The pandemic also disrupted weather observations and complicated disaster risk reduction efforts.

    The report illustrates how climate change poses a risk to the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals, through a cascading chain of interrelated events. These can contribute to reinforcing or worsening existing inequalities.  In addition, there is the potential for feedback loops which threaten to perpetuate the vicious cycle of climate change.

  • Parts of India to see deadly heat waves in coming decades: Study

    In 2015, large parts of India and Pakistan experienced the fifth deadliest heat wave in the recorded history, which caused about 3,500 heat-related deaths.