Heat wave

Description

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Context: Konkan region, including Mumbai, has been experiencing heat waves with the maximum temperatures touching the 40 degrees mark.

Details

The Konkan region, including Mumbai, has been experiencing heat waves in recent days, with the maximum temperatures touching the 40 degrees mark.

About Heat Wave

A heat wave or heatwave is a period of excessively hot weather, with high humidity, especially in oceanic climate areas.
Heat waves are usually measured relative to the usual weather in the area and relative to normal temperatures for the season.
The definitions of heatwave vary from region to region. Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be called a heat wave in a cooler area if they are outside the normal climate pattern for that area.
Severe heat waves have caused catastrophic crop failures, thousands of deaths from hyperthermia and widespread power outages due to increased use of air conditioning.
A heat wave is considered extreme weather that can be a natural disaster and a danger because heat and sunlight may overheat the human body.
Heat waves can usually be detected using forecasting instruments so that a warning call can be issued.
Climate models reveal that future heat waves will have a more intense geographic pattern. The world will experience more intense, more frequent, and longer-lasting heat waves in the second half of the 21st century.
Increased anthropogenic activities causing increased greenhouse gas emissions show that heat waves will be more severe.
Heat waves and droughts as a result, minimize ecosystem carbon uptake. Carbon uptake is also known as carbon sequestration. This will cause changes in the ecosystem's carbon cycle feedback because there will be less vegetation to hold the carbon from the atmosphere, which will only contribute more to atmospheric warming.

Health Impacts of Heat Waves

The health impacts of Heat Waves typically involve dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and/or heat stroke.
Children, the elderly and those with pre-existing morbidities are particularly vulnerable.
Vegetable vendors, cab drivers, construction workers, police personnel, roadside kiosk operators and mostly weaker sections of the society have to work in the extreme heat to make their ends meet and are extremely vulnerable to the adverse impacts of heat waves such as dehydration, heat and sun strokes.

Formation of Heat wave

A heat wave occurs when a system of high atmospheric pressure moves into an area and lasts two or more days.
- In such a high-pressure system, air from upper levels of our atmosphere is pulled toward the ground, where it becomes compressed and increases in temperature.
This high concentration of pressure makes it difficult for other weather systems to move into the area, which is why a heatwave can last for several days or weeks.
- The longer the system stays in an area, the hotter the area becomes.
The high-pressure system also prevents clouds from entering the region; sunlight can become punishing, heating up the system even more.
The combination of all of these factors come together to create the exceptionally hot temperatures we call a heatwave.
This is common in summer (in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres) as the jet stream 'follows the sun'.

Heat wave in India

In India, a region or locality is considered to be under the influence of heatwave if the maximum temperature reaches or exceeds;
- 40 degrees Celsius in the plains.
- 30 degrees Celsius in hilly regions.
- 37 degrees Over the coastal regions
When the maximum temperature departure ranges between 4.5 and 6 degrees, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declares a heatwave.
- For example; If the normal temperature of a locality should be 40 degrees, and the actual recorded temperature is 45 degrees, the locality is under heatwave.
- Severe heatwave is declared when the recorded maximum temperature of a locality departure from normal is over 6.4 degrees.
In India, heat waves occur from March to June, occasionally in July. The peak heatwave events have been reported in the month of May.
As per the IMD, the most heatwave prone states are Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Vidarbha, and parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and occasionally over Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Reasons why India is experiencing more heat waves are:

Magnified effect of paved and concrete surfaces in urban areas and a lack of tree cover.
Urban heat island effects can make ambient temperatures feel 3 to 4 degrees more than what they are.
Higher daily peak temperatures and longer, more intense heat waves are becoming increasingly frequent globally due to climate change.

Heatwave in Konkan area

The ongoing heatwave in Konkan, including Mumbai, is because it is under the direct influence of the prevailing heatwave in the adjacent Saurashtra-Kutch regions of Gujarat.
The hot and dry winds from northwest India are reaching parts of Konkan.
In addition, the slow movement of sea breeze along the Maharashtra coast and the overall clear sky conditions have together resulted in such hot conditions.

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies

The Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies are intended to mobilize individuals and communities to help protect their neighbors, friends, relatives, and themselves against avoidable health problems during spells of very hot weather.
The Government agencies need to play a critical role in preparing and responding to heat waves at a local level, working closely with health and other related departments on a long term strategic plan.
Establish Early Warning System and Inter-Agency Coordination to alert residents on predicted high and extreme temperatures. Who will do what, when, and how is made clear to individuals and units of key departments, especially for health.
Capacity building / training programme for health care professionals at local level to recognize and respond to heat-related illnesses, particularly during extreme heat events.
- These training programmes should focus on medical officers, paramedical staff and community health staff so that they can effectively prevent and manage heat related medical issues to reduce mortality and morbidity.
Public Awareness and community outreach - Disseminating public awareness messages on how to protect against the extreme heatwave through print, electronic and social media and Information, Education and Communication materials such as pamphlets, posters and advertisements and Television Commercials on Do and Don’t and treatment measures for heat related illnesses.
Collaboration with non government and civil society - Collaboration with non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations to improve bus stands, building temporary shelters, wherever necessary, improved water delivery systems in public areas and other innovative measures to tackle Heat wave conditions.
Identifying heat hot-spots through appropriate tracking of meteorological data and promoting timely development and implementation of local Heat Action Plans with strategic inter-agency coordination, and a response which targets the most vulnerable groups.
Review of existing occupational health standards, labor laws and sectoral regulations for worker safety in relation to climatic conditions.
Policy intervention and coordination across three sectors health, water and power is necessary.
Expedite the rollout of the National Action Plan on Climate Change and Health.
- Preventing temperature-related morbidity and mortality could be a key programme under this mission.
- Ensure an adequate supply of water. Timely access to drinking water can help mitigate this escalation.
Further research using sub-district level data to provide separate indices for urban and rural areas to enable more targeted geographical interventions.
Provision of public messaging (radio, TV), mobile phone-based text messages, automated phone calls and alerts.
Promotion of traditional adaptation practices, such as staying indoors and wearing comfortable clothes.
Popularization of simple design features such as shaded windows, underground water storage tanks and insulating housing materials.
Advance implementation of local Heat Action Plans, plus effective inter-agency coordination is a vital response which the government can deploy in order to protect vulnerable groups.