Heatwaves in Kashmir
The global warming and climate change has been knocking do8ors in Kashmir too.
Heat Waves are a period of unusually high temperatures as compared to what is normally expected over a region. Therefore, the temperatures at which Heat waves are declared differ from place to place based on the temperature climatology (historical temperatures) of that region.
Heatwave conditions persisted in Kashmir on several days and on Thursday , 4 July with Srinagar recording a maximum temperature of 35.7 degrees Celsius, six notches above normal and the highest in July in 25 years, officials said.
The city had recorded a high of 37 degrees Celsius in July 1999.
Srinagar was hotter than Delhi (31.7 degrees Celsius), Kolkata (31 degrees Celsius), Mumbai (32 degrees Celsius) and Bengaluru (28 degrees Celsius).
As a matter of fact, Valley of Kashmir has been experiencing rising temperatures and scorching heat over the past few weeks, leading to water shortage in many areas.
On their part, health department has issued advisories to deal with the heatwave conditions. The school education department has already announced a 10-day summer vacation for all schools in the Valley from July 8.
A report published few time
back by Moody’s, titled ‘India: Temperatures Beyond the Heatwave?’, documents that the mercury in reality exceeded the normal heatwave limit. The report suggests that mitigation of heat is the only viable solution.
It further points out that global temperatures are soaring to unprecedented levels as heatwaves are being declared in various countries.
During May alone, more than 200 people had died and some 20,000 had been hospitalised with heat stroke in India. On 1 June, 33 election officials died of heatstroke in the state of Uttar Pradesh,” the report underlines.
The need of the hour is that we in Kashmir take series of steps especially planting more trees to safeguard ourselves from the heatwave .