India saw the second-hottest heatwave in June-August beating 1970 record
CSI 5 reports that 20.5 million Indians experienced temperatures impacted by climate change for a minimum of 60 days.
With a special emphasis on India, Climate Central’s seasonal research from June to August 2024 provides an alarming glimpse at how human-induced climate change affects global temperatures. The report uses the Climate Shift Index (CSI) and temperature anomalies to show how much climate change is contributing to the region’s rising temperatures.
India had its second-hottest season since 1970, when satellite data tracking started. Temperature spikes caused by climate change were at least three times more likely to occur over the course of these three months and last for 29 days. CSI 5 reports that 20.5 million Indians experienced temperatures impacted by climate change for a minimum of 60 days, highlighting India’s susceptibility to intense heat in contrast to other countries in South Asia.
The Climate Shift Index (CSI) measures the effect of climate change on daily temperatures. It gives a specific index for analysing the local and global effects of climate change on heat levels, with scores ranging from 1 to 5 indicating the chance that a day’s temperatures have risen as a result of human-caused climate change. A CSI of 2 means that the temperature on a given day is twice as likely to occur in today’s altered climate as in a world free of human-caused changes.
Public Health Concerns
About 426 million individuals, or nearly a third of India’s 1.38 billion people, experienced potentially sweltering temperatures for at least seven days, surpassing 90% of the local temperature records from the baseline period of 1991 to 2020. There were deadly heatwaves for over 112 million people for more than a month, which raised major concerns about public health.
Heatwaves caused by climate change were particularly severe in a number of Indian towns. Due to climate change, Thiruvananthapuram, Vasai-Virar, Kavaratti, Thane, Mumbai, and Port Blair all saw more than 70 days with temperatures that were at least three times higher than usual due to climate change. In Mumbai alone, there were 54 excessive heat days, and temperatures in Delhi and Kanpur frequently rose above 39°C, with climate change is making these extremes four times more common.
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