Severe heatwave engulfs Asia, killing people and forcing schools to close
Extreme temperatures described as ‘the worst April heatwave in Asian history’ as records are threatened in India, China, Thailand and Laos
A severe heat wave swept through much of Asia, causing deaths and school closures in India and record high temperatures in China.
Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian, described the unusually high temperatures as the “worst April heat wave in Asian history”. In China, local media reported that record temperatures for April were seen in many places, including Chengdu, Zhejiang, Nanjing, Hangzhou and other parts of the Yangtze River Delta region.
Unusually hot temperatures have also been reported in Southeast Asia in recent days, including Luang Prabang, Laos, which recorded 42.7C this week, the highest reliable temperature in its history, according to Herrera. Vientiane also recorded 41.4°C on Saturday, the hottest day in the capital’s history. In Thailand, a government monitoring station in Tak in the northwest of the country recorded 45.4°C on Saturday, beating the previous record of 44.6°C set in Mae Hong Son on April 28, 2016. The record was not included in the official government summary. statistics, however, which reported the temperature at Tak as 44.6C.
In Bangladesh, a country at the forefront of the climate crisis, temperatures soared above 40C in the capital, Dhaka, on Saturday, the hottest day in 58 years, causing road surfaces to melt. An official from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change said that if the heat does not subside, they will declare a temperature emergency in some areas.
In recent years, India has become particularly vulnerable to extreme heat, and experts fear this year could be even worse. The April heat wave hit some Indian states, with the meteorological service this week issuing an orange warning of a severe heatwave in parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Bengal western, all states with a high proportion of rural workers and laborers who are forced to work outdoors even as temperatures and humidity soar.
