Extreme heat wave in Asia: 1 billion people affected

March 2022 was the warmest in Pakistan since 1961. For the first time in decades, the country went straight from winter to summer without spring, according to Reuters.

Even in India, March was unusually warm — the warmest since measurements began in 1901, according to the Associated Press. In southern India, some schools were closed all week.

Approaching the fifty mark

The IMD weather service has issued heat warnings. The heat wave is likely to affect more than a billion people and temperatures in some places could approach the 50th mark, according to meteorologist Scott Duncan, noted by TT.

The authority urges citizens not to expose themselves to heat, to wear light and light cotton clothes, and to protect their heads with a hat or umbrella.

According to forecasts, the temperatures in the next few days will end at the same levels as the heat waves in India and Pakistan in May and June 2015. At that time, at least 4,500 people died in the heat.

India is more vulnerable

India, according to an article in The Lancet cited by the Associated Press, Brazil is among the countries in the world with the highest heat-related mortality rate.

The number of patients suffering from heat-related illnesses has also increased in recent days, says Fusaram Bishnoi, a doctor in Rajasthan. It was about heat stroke, but also about illnesses caused by foods that went bad in the heat.

“We are telling people not to go out during the day and to drink more and more water,” he told the New York Times.

However, the heat is expected to subside on Sunday, May 1, in eastern India and a day later in the northwestern and central parts of the country.