In 1913, over a century ago, in Death Valley, a desert region in California, the United States, recorded the highest temperature ever measured on Earth, which was 56.7 degrees Celsius.
The extremely high temperatures recorded in New Delhi in the last two days are extraordinary. But they’re in keeping with the global trend in the last couple of times that has seen record- breaking temperatures being reported from several locales across the world.
For illustration, the United Kingdom crossed 40 degree Celsius for the first time ever in July 2022. A small city in China’s northwest recorded 52 degree Celsius last time, the loftiest ever for that country. In 2021, Sicily in Italy recorded48.8 degrees Celsius, the loftiest for Europe ever. These are just a many exemplifications.
An analysis by Carbon detail, a UK- grounded publication concentrated on climate change, last time showed that nearly 40 of the Earth had recorded its loftiest- ever diurnal temperature between 2013 to 2023. This includes places in Antarctica as well. The loftiest temperature in India, in Rajasthan’s Phalodi, was also recorded during this period.
still, the loftiest ever temperature recorded anywhere on Earth,56.7 degree Celsius in a place called Death Valley in the desert of California, United States, was recorded further than 100 times agone , in 1913.
If the52.9 degree Celsius recorded at one of the stations in Delhi on Wednesday is vindicated, it would be an all time high for India. But as of now it’s questionable. The India Meteorological Department( IMD) said it was checking the authenticity of the reading by an automatic rainfall station in Mungeshpur, located on the northern outskirts of Delhi, skirting Haryana.
The dubieties over the Mungeshpur reading stems substantially from the fact that none of the other stations in Delhi — there are 20 of them — recorded a temperature that was close to52.9 degree Celsius. The maximum temperature in other stations of Delhi on Wednesday was recorded by the Najafgarh station, which gave a reading of49.1 degree Celsius. The station that’s taken to be representative of Delhi — Safdarjung showed a maximum temperature of46.8 degree Celsius. This itself was an 80- time record, the loftiest since 1944.
Indeed if the Mungeshpur data wasn’t so overtly suspicious and IMD officers admit it’s a record- breaking temperature like this would have demanded a verification. Met services across the world do a double- check on any similar extreme rainfall event. It took a many days for the UK record to be officially verified by the UK Met office. The Sicily temperature record for Europe came sanctioned only in January this time, nearly three times after it was recorded.
But record- breaking or not, there’s no mistrustfulness about the fact that Delhi, and indeed utmost of northern India, is going through one of the worst heatwaves. In utmost places, maximum temperatures are 5 to 10 degree Celsius above normal. Wednesday was the fourth successive day when the Safdarjung station recorded a temperature well above 45 degree Celsius. The fact that temperatures haven’t been record- breaking is no consolation for populations reeling under decreasingly dragged and severe heatwave conditions.
“ It’s veritably concerning that periodic trends in heatwaves now show temperature departures of 5- 9 degree Celsius from the normal summer rainfall Heatwaves are easily the single largest trouble to India’s well- being moment, ” said Aarti Khosla, director of Climate Trends, a climate organisation.
“ Temperatures in Delhi and neighbouring NCR countries in the last two days are proof that the issue is now about survivability, ” she said.
Global Warming
The time 2024 was prognosticated to be extremely warm. Last time had surfaced as the warmest time on record, encyclopedically, and the effect was anticipated to continue this time as well. And so far, it has.
April 2024 was the 11th successive month when the global average yearly temperature for that month touched a new record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, an agency of the European Commission. The one time period between May 2023 to April 2024 was warmer than any former 12- month period, about1.61 degree Celsius advanced than thepre-industrial( 1850- 1900) normal.
The warming over India isn’t as pronounced as the world taken as a whole. Periodic mean temperatures over India have risen by about0.7 degree Celsius compared to 1900 situations. This is significantly lower than the1.59 degree Celsius rise for average land temperatures across theworld.However, global temperatures right now are at least 1, If abysses too are included.1 degree Celsius advanced thanpre-industrial pars.
still, heatwaves over India are noticeably more severe. In 2023, heatwave conditions prevailed indeed in February, technically a downtime month for which heatwave thresholds aren’t indeed defined because they aren’t anticipated.
The current spell of high temperatures in Delhi, and utmost of north India, looks anomalous substantially because it’s being compared to normal temperatures that are grounded on pars of 1981- 2010 period. Going forward, 45 degree Celsius plus temperatures are likely to veritably snappily come the new normal, and a 50 degree Celsius reading will no longer look suspicious.
