Let's discuss what's happening in India, where the country is recording its highest ever temperatures. Delhi has hit 52.3°C, and this is shaping up to be the longest and worst heatwave the city has experienced in the last 74 years. Between March and May 2024, India endured heatwaves for 54 days, while lightning, floods, and landslides affected 71 and 40 days, respectively.
These pre-monsoon weather events can no longer be considered anomalies for a year that saw extreme weather occurrences on almost 88% of the 365 days. These events have claimed over 3,000 lives, affected 3.2 million hectares of crops, destroyed more than 235,000 houses, and killed over 9,000 livestock. It's now 2025, and summer is fast approaching. Let’s take a look back at how 2024 unfolded, particularly in terms of extreme weather events.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), in its annual climate summary for 2024, stated that the year was the warmest since 1901. Before the onset of the monsoons, the pre-monsoon or summer season, which typically lasts from March to May, extended to 92 days. Within these 92 days, heatwaves were recorded on 54 days in 2024. While the overall temperature remained close to normal, Southern India experienced unusually high temperatures, recording its third highest maximum temperature at 35.2°C and the second highest minimum temperature at 23.3°C. States like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Sikkim, and Jammu and Kashmir saw temperatures above normal by about 1°C.
The previous decade, from 2015 to 2024, was also the warmest on record, with an average annual mean temperature anomaly of 0.31°C. According to the "Heat Watch 2024" report, titled Struck by Heat: A News Analysis of Heat Stroke Deaths in India in 2024, between March and June, 733 deaths due to heatstroke were reported across 17 states in India. Take a look at this map showing the distribution of deaths in those states—the total adds up to 733 deaths.
However, contrasting this data with the figures presented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the 18th LoSAA session, the government’s total count is 360—almost half of the reported figures from Heat Watch. The report further highlighted gaps in implementing the guidelines set by the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health and the National Centre for Disease Control to mitigate the impacts of climate change. These gaps stem from the lack of information and infrastructure to address heat-related health issues. Hospitals are not equipped to handle heatwaves, and many healthcare professionals are unaware of the relevant guidelines. This lack of preparedness and disregard for the guidelines has led to avoidable deaths.
The guidelines state that both the central and state governments must establish heat desks, which should provide access to water, ambulances, air-conditioned indoor facilities, on-site cooling equipment, and other cooling measures. Had these guidelines been followed, the tragic deaths of 33 polling officials due to heatstroke during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh could have been prevented.
The surge in extreme heat will likely continue into 2025, as January 2025 was already 0.9°C warmer than January 2024. Fossil fuel emissions remain the primary driver of greenhouse gas emissions, and capping global temperature rise at 2°C above pre-industrial levels, as per the Paris Agreement, now seems highly unlikely. Scientists are also concerned that the overwhelming influence of heatwaves across the oceans has diminished the cooling effect of La Niña. Without radical steps to cool the Earth, each year will likely see increasingly severe weather.