Current Affairs

Issue

India is witnessing a record heatwave, with temperatures reaching 50 degree Celsius in many parts of the country.

 

Details

• March was recorded as the hottest in 122 years from 1901-2022, with Northwest and Central India being the hottest.  

• Studies have shown that April and May are warming faster than core summer months of May and June in India.

• The heatwave has indicated the global warming’s cascading effect on the temperature.

• Climate change has resulted in disruption in cooling western disturbance, anticyclones becoming more dominant, and Arctic heatwaves increasing.

 

Effects on western disturbances

• Western disturbances are storms that originate in the Caspian or Mediterranean Sea, that bring non-monsoonal rainfall to northwest India and parts of Central India.

• These storms and associated rains suppress heat wave conditions in the Indo-Gangetic plains.

• The frequency of western disturbances has intensified in recent years but they have not translated to the precipitation associated with them.

 

Anti-cyclonic conditions

• Anticyclones are large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure.

• They disperse winds in all directions as it rotates clockwise. They occur normally over north-west India but get exaggerated due to the heatwave conditions.

 

Arctic heatwaves

• Arctic heatwave pushes air upwards, leading to formation of a low-pressure area in sub-polar region.

• This pulls weather systems, including western disturbances, northwards, making them move in higher latitudes.