The sweltering temperatures are consistent with long-standing warnings from climate scientists. In India, officials said August was the hottest and driest since national records began more than a century ago.
People use umbrellas to avoid the heat as they walk outside Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on July 30, 2023. Photo: AFP
August falls in the middle of India’s annual monsoon, which typically brings 80 percent of the country’s annual rainfall. But despite heavy rains that caused deadly flooding in northern India earlier in the month, rainfall overall has been well below average.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the average rainfall in August was just 161.7 mm, 30.1 mm less than the previous record set in August 2005. That left the country suffering from unrelenting heat. “Lack of substantial rainfall and weak monsoon conditions were the main reasons,” the IMD said.
Japanese authorities also said on Friday that the country had experienced its hottest summer since records began in 1898.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said temperatures from June to August were “significantly higher” than average across the country. In many places, “not only the maximum temperature but also the minimum temperature” reached record highs.
In Australia, this winter has been a record warm, with an average temperature of 16.75 degrees Celsius for the June-August season. The Bureau of Meteorology said this was higher than the previous record set in 1996 and the highest average winter temperature since records began in 1910.
Climate change has caused global temperatures to soar this year, with July being the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. Scientists have long warned that climate change is making heat waves longer and more frequent.
And the warming El Nino weather pattern could add to the heat, with its effects likely to become more apparent later in the year as it strengthens. Heatwaves are one of the deadliest natural hazards, with hundreds of thousands of people dying from heat-related causes each year.
In developed countries, adaptation measures including air conditioning can help mitigate the impact. But even in wealthy Japan, authorities said at least 53 people died from heatstroke in July, with nearly 50,000 requiring emergency medical care.
The effects of heat are unevenly distributed, with young children and the elderly less able to regulate their body temperature and therefore more vulnerable. People who work outside are also particularly at risk. Even a healthy young person will die after six hours of exposure to 35°C temperatures and 100% humidity.
John Nairn, senior adviser on extreme heat at the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said last month that heatwaves were "becoming much more dangerous".
“It is the most rapidly emerging consequence of global warming that we are seeing,” he told AFP in an interview. “It will become more intense and more frequent.”
Mai Anh (according to AFP, CNA)
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