From India to Southeast Asia to Australia: Heat records crash in sweltering Asia

SINGAPORE/BANGKOK: Temperature records are being broken across Asia, from India’s summer to Australia’s winter, authorities said Friday, in new evidence of the impact of climate change.

The sweltering temperatures match long-standing warnings from climate scientists and come as countries from Greece to Canada battle record heat and deadly wildfires.

In India, the world’s most populous country, officials said August was the hottest and driest since national records began more than a century ago.

The month falls in the midst of India’s annual monsoon, which normally contributes up to 80 percent of the country’s annual rainfall.

But despite heavy downpours that caused deadly flooding in the north of the country earlier this month, overall rainfall has been well below average.

August recorded an average of just 161.7 millimeters (6.4 inches), 30.1mm less than the previous record set in August 2005, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

That has left the country burning in unrelenting heat.

“The great lack of precipitation and the weakness of the monsoon are the main reasons,” says the IMD.

Officials in Japan also said on Friday that the country had experienced its hottest summer since records began in 1898.

Temperatures from June to August were “considerably higher” than average in the north, east and west of the country, the weather agency said.

In many places “not only the maximum temperatures but also the minimum ones” reached record levels, he added.

And in Australia, this winter was the warmest on record, with an average temperature of 16.75 degrees Celsius (62.15 Fahrenheit) for the season running from June to August.

This is slightly above the record set in 1996 and the highest average winter temperature since the country’s records began in 1910, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

– ‘More intense, more frequent’ –

Climate change has already brought scorching temperatures across the globe this year, with July being the hottest month ever recorded on Earth.

Scientists have long warned that climate change produces hotter, longer, and more frequent heat waves.

And El Niño’s warming weather pattern could further accelerate the heat, though its effects are likely to become more apparent later in the year as it strengthens.

Heat waves are among the deadliest natural hazards: hundreds of thousands of people die each year from preventable heat-related causes.

In developed countries, adaptations, including air conditioning, can help mitigate the impact.

But even in wealthy Japan, authorities said at least 53 people died of heat stroke in July, and nearly 50,000 needed emergency medical attention.

The effects of heat are unevenly distributed: young children and the elderly are less able to regulate their body temperature and are therefore more vulnerable.

Those who have to work outdoors are also at special risk.

Even a healthy young person will die after enduring six hours of 35 degree Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) heat along with 100 percent humidity.

But extreme heat doesn’t have to get anywhere near that level to kill people, experts warn.

John Nairn, senior adviser on extreme heat at the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said last month that heat waves are “getting much more dangerous.”

“It’s the fastest consequence of global warming that we’re seeing,” he told AFP in an interview.

“People are too relaxed with the signs,” he laments.

“It’s only going to get more intense and more frequent.” – AFP