Authorities warn of water shortages with temperatures 9C higher than expected and 1.9C above previous countrywide highpoint
  • FaceDeer@fedia.io
    531·
    6 months ago

    I don’t see humidity mentioned in the article, that’s the real killer once the temperature gets up above body temperature. If humidity is high then evaporating water isn’t going to effectively cool a person and the only way to survive is to get into air conditioning or other artificially low-temperature safe zones. Temperatures like this are more often seen in arid places, I dread the time something like this hits a major tropical urban area when it’s humid. We could see megadeaths.

    • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      22·
      6 months ago

      Looking at their current 10 day forecast doesn’t look very pleasant either

      The coldest 2 days are going to be 42C (about 107F) with lows close to 30C (about 86F)

      When I looked (about 10am for them) it was about 37C (about 100F) with a 31% humidity.

      It’s a fuckin disaster over there with multiple days predicting 45C as the high.

    • neo@lemy.lolEnglish
      15·
      6 months ago

      Only people with AC (or deep basements?) would be save… as long as they have electricity.

      Makes me wonder what would happen in a mega city like Delhi, when the weather get’s lethal. Will people storm places with AC or will they be apathetic (like starving people).

      I hope we won’t find out! But at least heat shelters will probably become normal.

      • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        6 months ago

        Also, people with running water. The cold tap can get quite warm in some places but 38C, I don’t think so.

        • neo@lemy.lolEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Good point. I haven’t thought of that. Boy do I hope it will never come this. I don’t think the city’s water supply would last long.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    431·
    6 months ago

    That’s 127.22°F.

    That’s not all that far off the world record in Death Valley.

    https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/07/death-valley-california-breaks-the-all-time-world-heat-record-for-the-second-year-in-a-row/

    Death Valley, California, breaks the all-time world heat record for the second year in a row

    If verified, the 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4°C) reading at the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center on Friday, July 9, 2021, would be Earth’s highest reliably measured temperature.

    There are a whole lot more people living in Delhi than Death Valley, though.

    EDIT: According to this, the hottest temperature India has been recorded seeing prior to this was in 2016:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_weather_records

    51.0 °C (123.8 °F)

    That was at Phalodi, which is a desert city in India.

    EDIT2: It sounds like the Indian government thinks that the reading may be an error.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/delhi-temperature-may-break-record-highest-ever-india-126-degrees/

    A temperature reading collected in Delhi, India’s capital territory, may have broken national records as the country grapples with a blistering heat wave. The reading — 52.9 degrees Celsius or 126.1 degrees Fahrenheit — was preliminary and technically an outlier compared with others taken in Delhi on the same day, officials said. But, if confirmed, it would be the highest temperature ever registered anywhere in India.

    The temperature reading came from a substation in Mungeshpur, a neighborhood in Delhi. Located in the northwest, India’s capital territory — which includes its capital city, New Delhi — is home to almost 30 million people and covers about 600 square miles of land. The Indian Meteorological Department said in a news release that the reading out of Mungeshpur could be due to a sensor issue or some other error, and that it would examine the data and the sensor.

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      191·
      6 months ago

      The difference is that the Delhi temperature is likely with significantly more humidity than the Death Valley one, even despite the fact that it’s the drier part of the year in Delhi.

      • saltesc@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        6 months ago

        Yeah. Where I used to live, 28C was bang on perfect. My new part of the world which is more inland and dry, it felt like that at 43. I would never had known if someone hadn’t mentioned “record heat”.

        I’ve been in 52 in dessert and it’s more like an oven, much less like a sauna. It’s “interesting”. I’ve been in 48C in a humid climate and it the heat felt ois so, so, so much worse, most people wouldn’t understand it unless experienced. It feels genuinely lethal and people definitely do die in their homes.

  • kandoh@reddthat.comEnglish
    30·
    6 months ago

    My father is in his 60s and I fully expect him to die from a power outage cutting off his AC when he’s in his 70s.

    That’s where I’m at regarding climate change right now. Literally writing off family members.

    • HasturInYellow@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      6 months ago

      I have long since written myself off as likely dying in a fight over resources (food, clean water, medicine) with some yokel who still wouldn’t believe in climate change. And people act confused when I say I have no motivation at work or hope for the future. Wild shit.

  • x4740N@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    6 months ago

    Doesn’t India have a shit ton of smog

    I wouldn’t be surprised if that was creating a local greenhouse effect

    • yildolw@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      I would expect smog to block or reflect incoming sunlight, lowering local temperatures

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      23·
      6 months ago

      I’m sure you’re not implying that it’s their own fault, but just for others that might read your comment…

      Smog in South East Asia is a complex problem. It’s not as simple as Delhi people doing things to make it smoggy. For example, in a lot of places the smog is from burning the stubble left over from crops. It does drift across international borders, so the people living with it often are not culpable in any way.

      Additionally, it tends to be seasonal, sort of November to February.

      Suffice to say the current temperature spikes are unlikely to be caused by smog and even if they were it’s not necessarily the fault of the good people of Delhi.

  • lud@lemm.eeEnglish
    10·
    6 months ago

    The article has been updated. It’s likely that the sensor was faulty.

    The highest temperature recorded by other sensors was 49,1 C

          • lud@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            Depends on what you are used to and if the infrastructure where you live is built with it in mind.

            Here, AC in residential buildings is fairly rare. It’s absolutely a luxury that few have.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
    7·
    6 months ago

    Climate change isn’t real, it’s all a conspiracy of pizza parlors led by Obama, or that other woman, vote trump!

    Please understand the very implied /s here…

  • geography082@lemm.eeEnglish
    721·
    6 months ago

    Study finds lower scam incidents worldwide in coincidence with the climate event.

    • ScaraTera@lemmy.worldEnglish
      93·
      6 months ago

      You do realise how cynical this is no? We are dying of the consequences of global warming to which the global South has contributed the least to, yet will suffer the most and can’t afford to survive it because of centuries of colonial loot