Scorching heat kills 800 in India

[ShahidT]

Over 1,000 now.


India heatwave kills 1000 as roads melt


Hyderabad: More than 1000 people are now believed to have died in a major heatwave across India, that has seen roads melt in New Delhi and temperatures near 50 degrees.

With no end in sight to the searing conditions, and officials warning the scorching temperatures would continue for several more days, hospitals are on alert to treat victims of heatstroke and authorities are advising people to stay indoors.

In the worst-hit state of Andhra Pradesh, in the south, 551 people have died in the past seven days as temperatures hit 47 degrees on Monday.

An Indian man covers his face as drives on a scooter under the hot sun in Hyderabad. Photo: AFP

"The state government has taken up education programmes through television and other media to tell people not to venture into the outside without a cap, to drink water and other measures," said P. Tulsi Rani, special commissioner for disaster management in the state.

"We have also requested NGOs and government organisations to open up drinking water camps so that water will be readily available for all the people in the towns."

Large parts of India, including the capital New Delhi, have endured days of sweltering heat, prompting fears of power cuts as energy-guzzling air conditioners work overtime.

Indian fishermen catch fish in a shrunken pond in the village of Phaphamau on the outskirts of Allahabad. Photo: AFP

The Hindustan Times daily said the maximum temperature in the capital hit a two-year high of 45.5 degrees on Monday - five degrees higher than the seasonal average.

The paper carried a front-page photo of a main road in the city melting in the heat, its zebra pedestrian crossing stripes curling and spreading into the asphalt.

"It's baking hot out here - our outing has turned into a nightmare," said Meena Sheshadri, a 37-year-old tourist from the western city of Pune who was visiting Delhi's India Gate monument with her children.

A passenger and her children sleep at a railway station in Allahabad, where temperatures reached 46.4 degrees this week. Photo: Reuters

"My throat is parched, even though I've been constantly sipping water."

In Telangana state, which borders Andhra Pradesh in the south, 231 people have died in the last week as temperatures hit 48 degrees over the weekend.

In the western state of Orissa, 11 people are confirmed to have died from the heat.

India's Meteorological Department issued a Red Box warning for the state on Tuesday and Wednesday - meaning the maximum temperatures would remain above 45 degrees.

Another 13 people have died in the eastern state of West Bengal, where unions urged drivers in the city of Kolkata to stay off the roads during the day.

Hundreds of people - mainly from the poorest sections of society - die at the height of summer every year across the country, while tens of thousands suffer power cuts from an overburdened electricity grid.

India's power industry has long struggled to meet rapidly rising demand in Asia's third largest economy, with poorly maintained transmission lines and overloaded grids.

With no end in sight to the hot, dry conditions, the Hindustan Times warned that some of the worst-affected states could be plunged into drought before the monsoon rains arrive.

The monsoon is forecast to hit the southern state of Kerala towards the end of this month before sweeping across the country, but it will be weeks before the rains reach the arid northern plains.

AFP , LA Times

 

[unbiasedopinion]

The main problem is not just heat but the erratic construction and our habits

I guess this is the important contribution towards increasing temperature in metro cities of India. Concrete jungle is leading to increase temperature as heat is absorbed by the cement during the night and is radiated throw out the night thus keeping the temperature high at night as well. Add to that the deforestation reducing the natural coolent i.e. trees.

We will see more of these harsh summers quite frequently.

 

[GURU DUTT]

It's about 34 degrees in Bangalore & you should hear the moaning about how hot it is........

janab meri sasural bangalore me hai so i know banglore is a very plesent (my kids go there for summer holidays) onli problem is traffik and pollutions in banglore but its true banglore is not what it was 10-15 years ago even places like kormangla and indra nagar looks like an extended free for all commercial place

 

[IrbiS]

India’s Heat Wave: How Extreme Heat Ravages the Body

Furnace-like conditions can overwhelm the body's natural cooling system, resulting in injury and death.

Dhanraj, 17, gets medical treatment in Bhopal Madhya Pradesh after suffering from sunstroke and severe dehydration.


Photograph by Sanjeev Gupta, EPA/Corbis
By Greta Weber & Susan Brink, National Geographic
PUBLISHED May 29, 2015

More than 1,800 people have died in one of the worst heat waves in India’s recent history. Temperatures nearing 122°F (50°C) melted roads in New Delhi and scorched crops in the fields. It proved especially deadly in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where at least 1,700 died in the past week.

May is consistently India’s hottest month, but, even so, temperatures shot far above normal. In the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh, daytime temperatures rose more than 40°F (7°C) higher than average, according to India’s meteorological department director B.P. Yadav.

Aftab Ahmad, an internal medicine expert at Apollo Health City, a hospital complex in Hyderabad, said there could be many reasons for the heavy death toll. “The prime among them is what is called climatic acclimatization,” he told The Times of India Wednesday “This year the temperature changed suddenly. This disturbs the defense mechanisms of the body.”

India’s extreme weather serves as a stark reminder of how vulnerable the human body is to severe heat. Unable to adapt to sweltering conditions, people become susceptible to sunstroke and severe dehydration.

Claude Piantadosi, director of the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology in Durham, North Carolina, says human beings aren't built to spend long periods of time in temperatures that exceed the body’s own temperature of about 98.6 degrees.

Cooling Mechanisms
Normally, the body stays cool by shedding unused energy in the form of heat dissipating by conduction—or the transfer of heat energy to the skin's surface, and then by convection—the transfer of heat energy to the air. The hotter it gets, the more difficult it becomes to shed that heat. At temperatures topping 100 degrees, the system reverses and heat flows from the environment into the body, says Piantadosi.

Scorching heat melted tar and asphalt in New Delhi Wednesday, distorting zebra road crossings.


Photograph by Harish Tyagi, EPA
At that point, humans depend on a second cooling mechanism: perspiration. Sweat heats up and is transformed into water vapor, which removes heat from the body and reduces the internal core temperature. But high humidity defeats the system, because sweat won't evaporate when the air is already saturated with moisture. "The combination of heat and high humidity is really quite deadly," Piantadosi says. "It defeats our heat dissipation mechanism."

Worst-Case Scenario
The sweating mechanism, however, only works if people drink enough water to make up for the loss of body fluids. Without sufficient water, dehydration sets in. Blood flow to the skin decreases, along with the ability to sweat. Body heat builds up. A body temperature of 104°F indicates danger; 105°F is the definition of heat stroke; and a temperature of 107°F could result in irreversible organ damage or even death.

A normal, healthy person who is not used to the heat can, in heat wave conditions, sweat as much as 1.5 quarts in an hour. Someone acclimated to hot weather develops the ability to sweat (and thus cool off) at a more intense rate, losing up to two quarts of sweat in an hour. "So he'd have to drink two quarts of water an hour just to stay even," says Piantidosi.

The combination of high heat and lack of water is a sure recipe for multiple organ damage. Internal temperature soars, heart rate goes up, blood flow slows down, and organs begin to shut down. The kidneys shut down, and the heart has to work harder to pump a lower volume of blood through the body. Other organs begin to shut down, then fail.

A Quick Defeat
Under extreme heat conditions, it can all happen very quickly—in an hour, or even less. The brain, too, is affected by reduced blood flow. That's why people in the throes of heat illness begin to make poor, often life-threatening, decisions.

To compound matters, “in a place like India where there’s lots of poor people, access to clean water in plentiful amounts can be a problem,” Piantadosi says.

The first rains of the monsoon season are expected to hit southwest India by the end of May. But it could be weeks before the northeast feels the cooling effects. Until then, there is little the government can do.

Local officials have been opening water camps. They also advise people to stay indoors between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. But seeking refuge is not a realistic option in a poor country. Most of the victims live on the streets, exposed 24/7 to searing heat.

 

[thesolar65]

Come to Saudi Arabia, it's amost 60

And at night

And what is the level of humidity there? I mean maximum.

 

[Keel]

I think your government may have to consider installation of some of these facilities like those 'cooling mist" systems in China and elsewhere in the world during the killing heatwaves

Shenzhen and Chongqing bus stops

Fuzhou city

Cannon sprayer that goes around the city of Chongqing

 

[Jlaw]

I think your government may have to consider installation of some of these facilities like those 'cooling mist" systems in China and elsewhere in the world during the killing heatwaves

Shenzhen and Chongqing bus stops

Fuzhou city

Cannon sprayer that goes around the city of Chongqing

why should they? Brahmos, moon mission and monitoring China are priority one. Who cares about those Dalits who died right?

 

[Keel]

why should they? Brahmos, moon mission and monitoring China are priority one. Who cares about those Dalits who died right?

Well nearly 2 thousand people have died rather helplessly
The onus is on the Indian government
RIP for the unlucky ones

 

[East or West India Best]

Temperature in Delhi: 43 Celcius with 34% humidity

Heat index: 52.1 celcius

Heat Index Calculator

I have been to India once in delhi. I saw they are building some concrete type structures in NCR like in dubai. Exactly copying that style. India needs green cities rather than all those fancy looking concrete. It will make your soil infertile and unproductive for next 100 years.

Plus because you have tropical type of climate below Madhya Pradesh, only green cities with lots of trees will help maintaining the balance.

Similarly in Karachi.

Need to plant grass and trees to lower temperature. I've notice South Asia has very poor grass.

 

[Ajai Ghale]

why should they? Brahmos, moon mission and monitoring China are priority one. Who cares about those Dalits who died right?

40% of country is desert and mountain and rest suffer from Floods and other natural disasters loosing $ billion on damage not to mention 100s of death on regular basis

Then why do you keep on invest in crap reverse engineer weapons.

 

[Jlaw]

40% of country is desert and mountain and rest suffer from Floods and other natural disasters loosing $ billion on damage not to mention 100s of death on regular basis

Then why do you keep on invest in crap reverse engineer weapons.

hey, if we reverse crap weapons, why worry? Be happy

 

[pher]

I think your government may have to consider installation of some of these facilities like those 'cooling mist" systems in China and elsewhere in the world during the killing heatwaves

Shenzhen and Chongqing bus stops

Fuzhou city

Cannon sprayer that goes around the city of Chongqing

don't make fun of indians, this kind of stuff needs money rather than just empty bragging.

do you expect poorer-than-africa india could afford this? they already spend their top dollars on importing their proud world-quality weapons, being ripped off from russia to israel and US.

 

[Keel]

don't make fun of indians, this kind of stuff needs money rather than just empty bragging.

do you expect poorer-than-africa india could afford this? they already spend their top dollars on importing their proud world-quality weapons, being ripped off from russia to israel and US.

No I am not making fun of them
Those installations/equipment are pretty inexpensive to purchase and they are not hi tech stuffs to make

 

[NIA]

don't make fun of indians, this kind of stuff needs money rather than just empty bragging.

do you expect poorer-than-africa india could afford this? .

There is vast difference between a poor country and country with many poor..I hope you know that
Regards

 

[Shan-e-ibrahim]

Temperature in Delhi: 43 Celcius with 34% humidity

Heat index: 52.1 celcius

Heat Index Calculator



Need to plant grass and trees to lower temperature. I've notice South Asia has very poor grass.

just 43 Celsius?? LOl this is nothing against 47 when I was in Pakistan , 10 years back.

In that region 43 is nothing man, these new hi fi sophisticated youth are just creating drama.

I tell you honestly I used to go out and play in sun in 45 celcius in loo.

If there is no high temperature then fruits will not ripe, vegetation will not bloom.

I was thinking it is crossing 50 in delhi and cities. Forget rajasthan, it is a desert.