India has recorded its hottest March since the country’s meteorological department began keeping records 122 years ago, threatening lives and the food supply just as the country is about to enter its hottest season.
The average nationwide temperature in March was 33.1°C (91.6°F), beating out the 32.7°C recorded in March 2021—itself the third warmest on record.
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India is about to get hotter as the country enters into its summer months, which end when the rain-filled monsoon season begins. India has seen a visible surge in the number of heatwave days between April and June, with days where temperatures rise above 40°C (104°F) in the plains and 30°C (86°F) in the hilly regions rising steadily every decade.
Between 1981 and 1990, India’s meteorological department counted 413 heatwave days; between 2001 and 2020, there were 575 heatwave days; and between 2011 and 2020, 600 hot days were counted, mostly in the inland areas.
This has deadly effects. While India’s average temperature only rose by some 0.5°C between 1960 and 2009, the probability of a massive heat-related mortality event—or a heat event marked by over 100 deaths—rose by 146%, according to the 2017 study Increasing probability of mortality during Indian heatwaves.
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