ISLAMABAD: Although the current heatwave sweeping across India and Pakistan was harmonious with what experts have come to anticipate in a changing climate, the head of the global rainfall body has said that it was unseasonable to attribute the extreme heat in South Asia solely to the miracle of climate change.
“ But heatwaves are more frequent and more violent and starting earlier than in the history,” World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Secretary-General Prof Petteri Taalas said on Tuesday.
The WMO functionary said “ Heatwaves have multiple and cascading impacts not just on mortal health, but also on ecosystems, husbandry, water and energy inventories and crucial sectors of the frugality. The pitfalls to society accentuate why WMO has committed to icing that multi-hazard early warning services reach the most vulnerable.”
Extreme heat has formerly again gripped large corridors of India and Pakistan, impacting hundreds of millions of people in one of the most densely populated corridors of the world. The public meteorological and hydrological departments in both countries are working nearly with health and disaster operation agencies to save lives, in line with the WMO drive to strengthen early warnings and early action, the WMO said in a press release issued on Tuesday.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its Sixth Assessment Report, said that heat swells and sticky heat stress will be more violent and frequent in South Asia this century.
Also Read: Every heatwave enhanced by climate change: experts
In the pre-monsoon period, both India and Pakistan regularly witness exorbitantly high temperatures, especially in May. Heatwaves do in April but are less common. It’s too soon to know whether new public temperature records will be set. Turbat in Pakistan recorded the world’s fourth loftiest temperature of53.7 degrees Celsius on May 28, 2017.
Temperatures also neared 50 °C in the worst-hit areas of Pakistan. The Pakistan Meteorological Department said that daytime temperatures are likely to be between 5 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius above normal in large swathes of the country. It said the hot dry rainfall posed a threat to water inventories, husbandry, and mortal and beast health.
It advised that in the mountainous regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the unusual heat would enhance the melting of snow and ice and might spark glacial lake outburst cataracts or flash cataracts in vulnerable areas, as well as swash situations.
Both India and Pakistan have successful heat-health early warning systems and action plans, including those especially acclimatized for civic areas. Heat Action Plans reduce heat mortality and lessen the social impacts of extreme heat, including lost work productivity. Important assignments have been learned from the history and these are now being participated among all mates of the WMOco-sponsored Global Heat Health Information Network to enhance capacity in the hard megahit region.
