Heat Waves And Action Plans How Does India Fare?

While preparedness, alerts and warnings, and other measures of heat action plans have vastly reduced the impact of heat waves, the duration and frequency of climate-induced heat waves are on the rise. Jency Samuel says that as heat waves impact people's health and livelihood, and the nation's economy adversely, there is a need to improve and better implement the heat action plans.

-  Jency Samuel

The World Meteorological Organization announced in mid-May this year that global temperatures would increase to record levels in the next five years, caused by greenhouse gases and El Nino. In April this year, the world has witnessed how lives were impacted in India and many South Asian and Southeast Asian countries owing to intense heat waves.

Consequently, the high temperatures continued in May and June, as recorded at some places in India. An update on this shows the temperature rise across few cities. On 23rd May, Delhi recorded 45°C. During May, temperature recorded in Chennai was around 40°C or more and the same condition lasted for more than two weeks; and incidentally the same weather condition continued till almost the middle of June 2023 as on June 20, 2023. In May, Jaipur recorded 40°C or more at a stretch for 11 days. In June, Lucknow recorded 40°C or more consecutively for 14 days as on June 20.

This would be exacerbated as a recent multi-country study has revealed that the likelihood of human-induced climate change causing such heat waves is 30 times higher.

What is a Heat Wave?

“Heat wave is a period of abnormally high temperatures, more than the normal maximum temperature of a place,” is how the National Disaster Management Authority defines it.

“Normal temperature refers to a 30-year average. Every day the temperature of a place is recorded. The normal temperature of a particular day, let’s say June 15, is calculated by taking the average of the temperatures recorded on June 15 over 30 years,” says Dr S Balachandran, the head of Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, one of the centres of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).