Climate change has made India’s heat wave 100 times more likely, UK weather service says

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/18/climate-change-made-india-heatwave-100x-more-likely-uk-met-office.html

 

 Emma Newburger

Published Wed, May 18 20225:55 PM EDTUpdated Wed, May 18 20226:52 PM EDT

 

• The blistering heat wave in northwest India and Pakistan was made over 100 times more likely because of human-caused climate change, according to a new study from the United Kingdom’s Met Office.
  
  
• The analysis suggests that high temperatures that used to occur about every 300 years may now happen about every three years.
  
  
• The extreme temperatures, which began in March, have already set records in the region and have forced millions of people to rearrange how they can work and live.
   

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India experienced its highest March temperatures and third-highest April temperatures in 122 years of records, and Pakistan has experienced its hottest April on record. 

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Without accounting for climate change, the probability of exceeding a heat event like the one that occurred in 2010 would only be expected once every 312 years, according to the study. But accounting for the current effects of climate change, such record-breaking temperatures are now expected every 3.1 years. By the end of the century, the chances could increase to every 1.15 years, the study cautioned.

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