Environment

Massive Heat Wave Creates Subcontinental Inferno

Meteorologists in South Asia say that the recent heat that baked the region was only one factor in the high number of fatalities the brutal conditions caused.

Official death figures exceeded 3,000 across India and Pakistan before the onset of the southwest monsoon brought cooling and wet relief to many areas by late June.

A freak combination of low barometric pressure, oppressive humidity and an unusual lack of wind created the Indian subcontinent’s most deadly heat wave in three decades.

The Indian Meteorological Department said even coastal residents, who typically get relief from sea breezes late in the day, suffered into the night when those cooling winds did not kick in.

“We don't know what is driving those circulation patterns which are producing some kind of descending motion and maintaining the warm conditions,” said Indian climate expert R. Krishnan.

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has long warned that heatwaves will become more extreme in South Asia.