New Delhi: This is the hottest pre-monsoon season after 2016 in the country. Winter and post-monsoon seasons are warming up faster, according to the latest findings by the Urban Lab of the Centre for Science and Environment. According to the study, land surface temperatures in Delhi have been the highest since 2010 and the city recorded a significant positive anomaly (temperature higher than expected) on all three temperature parameters.
In a bid to understand the warming trend in a comprehensive way, the study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has analysed the temperature trends by covering all three dimensions of heat stress — surface air temperature, land surface temperature, and relative humidity (heat index). In Delhi, the air temperature has been 1.77 degrees Celsius hotter than in 2010, and the land surface temperature is 1.95 degrees Celsius hotter, the study said, according to a PTI report.
What the CSE analysis said
- The daily average heat index crossed 40 degrees Celsius in June 2022
- March and April have been unusually dry in Delhi, but humidity started to rise in May with some scattered rain spells. But this spike in humidity has led to an increase in the heat index in the city, indicating increased thermal discomfort among the population.
- During the heatwave in May 2022, the land surface temperature across Delhi shot above 38 degrees Celsius, which was “unusual as the green pockets within the city have not heated up to this magnitude in the previous years,” and the average land surface temperature has been getting higher than the daily average air temperature. “Industrial and agricultural zone recorded the highest increase in land surface temperature between March to May. The regions at the city periphery in the north, southwest and northwest Delhi have seen an extremely high surface temperature rise from March 19 to May 14, 2022.
- Even the temperature of the water bodies rose to 29-30 degrees Celsius in May. It was well below 27 degrees Celsius in March.
- CSE said the objective of the city analysis was to understand the combined effect of climate change-induced unseasonal heatwaves. The study is based on a comparative statistical analysis of temperature anomalies and observed heat-related impact in Indian cities and regions.