cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16243336
Delhi temperature hits 52.9C, shattering India’s national record
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.
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.
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.
That’s 127.22°F.
That’s not all that far off the world record in Death Valley.
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.
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.
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.
I like my human sous vide
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.
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.
Doesn’t India have a shit ton of smog
I wouldn’t be surprised if that was creating a local greenhouse effect
Holy hell!
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Not quite.
