Asia has been experiencing “endless record heat” for several weeks, forcing the closure of schools and increasing energy use.
At monitoring stations in China, South Asia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and other countries, record April temperatures have been noted.
Four weather stations in Myanmar recorded monthly high temperatures on Tuesday, with Theinzayet in eastern Mon state recording the highest reading of 43C (109.4F).
According to climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera, Bago, northeast of Yangon, hit 42.2C on Wednesday, tying an all-time high that had previously been set in May 2020 and April 2019.
“Endless record heat in south-east Asia, with weeks of records falling every day,” claimed Herrera.
Last weekend, Thai officials urged residents of Bangkok and other parts of the nation to stay inside to prevent getting sick. On Saturday, the capital experienced a 42C high and a 54C heat index, which measures how hot it feels when mixed with humidity.
Many others endured the humid weather anyhow, finding relief in malls with air conditioning or sheltering under umbrellas and carrying fans to keep cool.
Water has been sprayed from flat or university buildings in various locations to reduce air pollution and heat brought on by seasonal agricultural burning.
Bangkok experienced some relief from the heat on Wednesday thanks to rain, and according to the officials, the hot season has officially reached its height.
Thailand consumed more than 39,000 megawatts of electricity on April 6, breaking its previous record of 32,000 megawatts set in April of last year. The hot weather has contributed to this record-breaking electricity usage.
Since the school calendar was changed in the Philippines due to the pandemic, pupils now spend the hottest months of the year in their classrooms, making it particularly difficult to deal with the heat. In order to keep pupils from becoming sick, hundreds of schools have shifted to distance learning.
To make things easier for teachers, one group has advocated for shorter class periods and smaller class sizes.
More than 100 pupils were hospitalised in a hospital in Laguna, southeast of Manila, last month after participating in a fire practise in temperatures between 39 and 42 degrees Celsius and becoming dehydrated as a result.
Globally speaking, 2022 was one of the warmest years ever, and the previous eight years were all the hottest ever recorded by contemporary science. The El Nio weather phenomena is predicted to return this year, which is expected to result in even higher temperatures.
“The most suffering will be experienced by the poorest of the impoverished. It is particularly damaging for the farming community and those who depend on fishing or agriculture, according to Dr. Fahad Saeed, regional head at Climate Analytics, a centre for climate science and policy, for South Asia and the Middle East.
Although he acknowledged that this region of the country experienced heat, he also noted that people were becoming less able to adjust to the rising temperatures.
An intergovernmental organisation called the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (Icimod) has expressed special concern about how global warming may affect the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.
According to the Icimod, the area contains the third-largest body of frozen water in the entire planet and is warming at a rate twice as fast as the global average.
“In the most optimistic scenario, limiting global warming to 1.5C, the region stands to lose one third of its glaciers by 2100 – creating huge risk to mountain communities, ecosystems, and nature, as well as the quarter of humanity downstream,” said Deepshikha Sharma, a Climate and Environment Specialist at Icimod.
The majority of the increasing quantity and ferocity of heat waves that we are experiencing across Asia are being caused by human-induced climate change.
These indicate that there is a climate emergency in this area, according to Sharma, who advocated for accelerated carbon reductions and additional funding to support the adaptation of vulnerable communities.
