Tens of millions sizzle in India’s severe heatwave

A boy jumps into a stepwell to cool off on a hot summer day in New Delhi, India, yesterday.

Tens of millions of people in India were yesterday suffering under a severe heatwave that has pushed the temperature to a nine-year high in Delhi as monsoon rains run behind schedule. Heatwaves have killed over 6,500 people in the world’s second-most populous nation since 2010, and scientists say climate change is making them harsher and more frequent. Daytime temperatures were above 40C (104F) for the fourth consecutive day yesterday across the states of Rajasthan, Haryana and New Delhi. Large parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in central India were also wilting. New Delhi saw 43.1C on Thursday, the hottest July day in the city since 2012 when the capital sweltered under 43.5C. The temperature yesterday again shot up to 41C in the city of 20mn. Temperatures have remained more than 7C above normal for this time of the year, prompting India’s weather office to classify it as “severe extreme heat”. India Meteorological Department said the mercury will stay above 40C for the coming week because of the late arrival of the southwest monsoon and a hot wind known as the Loo blowing in from the desert state of Rajasthan and Pakistan. The weather department has issued a heatwave alert for the region, with forecasters also saying some isolated places will witness thunderstorms. The intense heat has driven up power consumption as more and more people turned to air-conditioners and air coolers. Delhi’s power consumption peaked to nearly 7,000 megawatts (MW) this week, 10% to 15% higher than the average demand at this time of the year. In Punjab in the north, authorities announced a two-day weekly closure of industrial units and reduced office hours for its employees after electricity demand topped 15,000MW due. Forecasters predict that the annual rains will not hit New Delhi before July 7, making it the most delayed monsoon in the national capital since 2006. The deadliest year for India was 2015 when over 2,000 were killed by intense heat. Currently just 5% of Indian households have air conditioning compared to 90% in the US and 60% in China. But the market is forecast to boom in the coming years, driving up energy consumption in what is already the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide.