New Delhi, June 9 With more than 2,300 dead in extremely hot weather across India, a recent Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) study predicts more intense and longer heat waves, more often and earlier in the year in future.
In a changing climate, newer areas, including large swathes of southern India and both coasts – hitherto unaffected – will be severely hit, resulting in more heat stress and deaths, said the study, published in the journal Regional Environmental Change.
“From climate model projections, we have pointed out that there is a possibility of high occurrences of heat waves in South India in future,” Subimal Ghosh, associate professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-B, and one of the paper’s authors, told IndiaSpend.
Heat waves in a warming world
Such a forecast is in line with global and Indian studies.
Other recent assessments have predicted that intense heat waves will grow with rising global temperatures, up by 0.9 degrees Celsius since the start of the 20th century.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) records that from 1906 to 2005, the mean annual global surface-air temperature increased by about 0.74 degrees (land-surface air temperature increases more than sea-surface temperature). As a result, there will be significant change
