India is burning up. On Thursday (29 May), Delhi, recorded a temperature high of 52.9 degrees Celsius — the highest ever maximum temperature in the country. So high was the mercury reading that it even raised doubts about the accuracy of the data.
The record high temperature in the National Capital comes at a time when it is struggling with a
water crisis
, exacerbating the situation.
And it’s not just India that’s burning up. Data reveals that across the world, the mercury levels are rising; in fact, the
summer of 2023
was the hottest season in the northern hemisphere in the past 2,000 years.
As Delhi and other parts of the country and the world struggle with this unbearable heat, we take a closer look at how high has the mercury risen.
Delhi’s burning hot
On Wednesday, residents of
Delhi
, who have been grappling with rising temperatures for almost a week, were shocked when the sensor in
Delhi’s Mungeshpur
automatic weather station touched 52.9 degrees Celsius.
The temperature was more than nine degrees Celsius higher than expected, the India Meteorological Department said, and came on the second day of record-breaking heat. On Tuesday, a high of 49.9 degrees Celsius was hit in Mungeshpur and Narela, breaking the 2002 record of 49.2 degrees Celsius.
People have been complaining of the rising temperatures; there have been complaints of people burning their fingers from touching the steering wheel of a car and water coming out of taps at boiling temperatures. As Aruna Verma, a teacher, told The Guardian: “Having a shower is almost a waste of time. You come out of it and instantly you are a sweaty mess again.”
The record temperatures also led some to question if the data was accurate. In fact, shortly after news broke that Delhi had touched a high of 52.9 degrees Celsius, Union minister Kiren Rijiju questioned the readings.
“It is not official yet. Temperature of 52.3°C in Delhi is very unlikely. Our senior officials in IMD have been asked to verify the news report. The official position will be stated soon,” Kiren Rijiju said in a statement on social media platform X.
IMD Director General M Mohapatra also said the Mungeshpur station is an “outlier”. He speculated that local factors could be the reason for the red hot levels in the area. “The maximum temperature over Delhi NCR varied from 45.2 to 49.1 degrees Celsius in different parts of the city. Mungeshpur reported 52.9 degrees Celsius as an outlier compared to other stations. It could be due to error in the sensor or the local factor. IMD is examining the data and sensors,” the IMD said in a statement later this evening.
Outside of Delhi too, temperatures have soared. On Tuesday (28 May), it was 50.5 degrees Celsius, in the area around one substation in Rajasthan. Another substation in the city of Sirsa in Haryana, came up with a similar reading Tuesday, at 50.3 degrees Celsius.
India’s heat highs
If the IMD confirms Mungeshpur’s reading, then it will be India’s hottest. If not, then India’s hottest was recorded in May 2016 when Rajasthan’s city of Phalodi witnessed the mercury rising to a searing 51 degrees Celsius.
Churu, another town in Rajasthan, had also recorded a high of about 50 degrees Celsius the same day.
Prior to Phalodi’s record in 2016, the highest temperature had been recorded in Rajasthan’s Alwar in 1956. The city had seen the mercury levels reach 50.6 degrees Celsius.
World’s burning up
But what about the world’s hottest? How does the temperature high of 51 degrees Celsius measure to world highs?
Currently, the highest officially registered temperature is 56.7 degrees Celsius recorded in
California’s Death Valley
back in 1913. This recording was made official after the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) disqualified the previous record established at El Azizia, Libya, with a measurement of 58°Celsius. In 2012, the WMO said that the El Azizia record measurement could be inaccurate by as much as seven degrees C due to a combination of factors including the asphalt-like surface over which the measurement was taken, which is not a fair representation of the native desert soil.
In Africa, the hottest known temperature has been 55 degrees Celsius in Kebili, Tunisia in 1931. Meanwhile, in Asia, Iran’s Ahvaz in 2017 recorded the highest temperature of 54 degrees Celsius. Mitribah in Kuwait comes a close second with a recording of 53.9 degrees Celsius in 2016 followed up with Pakistan’s Turbat at 53.7 degrees Celsius in 2017.
In August 2021, the WMO confirmed a new record temperature for continental Europe of 48.8 degrees Celsius in Italy. Meanwhile, on 19 July, 2022, the United Kingdom recorded its highest-ever temperature, reaching 40.2 degrees C.
In South America, the record is held by Rivadavia, Argentina at 48.9 degrees Celsius.
Climate change to blame
Scientists have noted that rising temperatures are a result of a warming planet, thanks to climate change. In fact, climate experts note that over the past year, the average person on Earth experienced 26 more days of abnormally high temperatures than they otherwise would have, owing to climate change.
The summer of 2023 was 2.07 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels — which means the world warmed beyond previous estimates.
Jan Esper, a climate scientist at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany was quoted as saying about the hottest summer, “I’m not surprised. I am worried about global warming — it’s one of the biggest threats out there.”
With inputs from agencies
Link to article –
Did Delhi soar to 52.9 degrees Celsius? Mapping the world’s hottest temperatures
