It will be fair to say that many of us are looking forward to the monsoon season this year, eager to put behind us one of the hottest summers ever on record. With each passing year, India has been experiencing more and more instances of severe heatwaves, rendering these months more and more dreadful.
A recent report from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) indicated an increasing trend in the number and duration of heatwaves, based on data from the months of March to June from 1961 to 2020. This year, heatwaves started as early as on March 3, and many areas reported temperatures that were higher than average.
The number of days with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius has also increased of late. While a temperature of 33 degrees Celsius was recorded between 1961 and 1990 for around 70 days every year, from 1991 to 2022, this temperature was recorded for 89 days a year. It thus became the new normal.
