High noon

High noon

Context:

• The India Meteorological Department’s forecast of above-normal maximum and minimum temperatures across the country during the pre-monsoon March-May period is a timely alert for State authorities to review their preparedness.

Summer temperature in India:

• A spike in summer temperatures in India is not new, but some scientists contend that a half-degree rise in average temperature in recent decades has resulted in a higher probability of extreme heat waves and caused a lot of deaths.
• The advent of hot weather this year is marked by temperatures rising between 1.6° Celsius and 5° C above normal in States such as Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
• Other northern, central and eastern States also show a small increase.

Reasons for change in temperature:

Temperatures change daily due to many reasons.

1-  Location of the sun and how much sunlight (which changes due to the rotation and tilt of Earth) is received affects temperature levels.

2-Winds and other weather related phenomena has a larger impact on the changing temperature

3-  The absence or abundance of clouds can also affect day to day temperatures

4-  Greenhouse effect – this is a condition where instead of heat escaping into the atmosphere, it is trapped within the Earth’s surface. This normally takes place when there is an excessive amount of certain gases in the atmosphere. The gases as generally referred to as greenhouse gases. Examples of these gases include carbon, sulfur and nitrogen.

Implications on public health:

A heat event has the following implications for public health.

• It can lead to fatal heat stroke in a small percentage of people, while many more could encounter exhaustion, cramps and fainting.
• It is vital for governments to ensure that all stakeholders, including the health-care system, are prepared to deal with the phenomenon.
• Even a marginal rise above the normal will lead to enormous heat stress for millions of Indians.
• Senior citizens and people and people with pre-existing disease are more prone to health related problems during a heat wave.
• Scientific estimate of annual mortality attributable to heat waves between 2010 and 2015 ranges between 1,300 and 2,500.

World Health Organization suggestions:

• The World Health Organisation recommends that countries adopt heat-health warning systems, including daily alerts to ensure that people are in a position to deal with adverse weather, starting with reduction of exposure.
• Water stress is a common and often chronic feature in many States: arrangements should be made to meet scarcity.
•  There is some hope that the southwest monsoon this year will benefit from an expected moderate La Niña condition in the equatorial Pacific, marked by cooler-than-average sea surface temperature.
• Taking the long-term view, India has to pursue mitigation of greenhouse gases vigorously, since there is a perceived link between increases in average temperature caused by climate change and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

Conclusion:

• It is the responsibility of governments to ensure that community-level interventions are taken up to help vulnerable groups.