Record-high temperatures and severe drought are causing misery for hundreds of millions of people in Asia.
“In Southeast Asia this heat wave joins the historical ones of 1960, 1983 and 1998, but as for duration, intensity and affected area it is definitely the strongest heat wave for Thailand, Laos and Cambodia,” said Maximiliano Herrera, a prominent climatologist who investigates world temperature records.
Last year’s India heatwave officially killed 2,422 people — the country's highest heat-related death toll in more than two decades.
This year, more than 150 deaths in India are blamed on the heat over the past two weeks.
“I am afraid the heat will persist and increase for the next weeks and unfortunately the death toll will surely rise,” Herrera told the press.
In India’s richest state of Maharashtra, the worst dry spell in four decades has not only destroyed crops but caused death of livestock, seen reservoirs go dry and affected output at hydroelectric and thermal power plants.
In Malaysia, hundreds of schools have been ordered closed and the country’s farmers are losing their vegetables. To the north, in Thailand, a record low rice yield is predicted for the dry season.
Vietnam, usually the world’s second biggest coffee exporter, has seen its robusta crop in the central highlands wither amid the worst drought there in at least three decades.
“The first three months of this year have been so warm that 2016 is almost certain to be the hottest on record,” predicts the Times of India.
Some scientists remain cautious about attributing partial blame to climate change for the current spike in temperatures, as the time frame represents a relatively limited chunk of data.
Cambodia saw a national all-time record high of 42.6°C set in Preah Vihea province on April 15. That was two days after its neighbor to the north, Laos, set its own national all-time high temperature of 42.3°C at Seno.
Dozens of Thai weather stations have broken or tied their all-time record maximum temperatures this month.
The thermometer has been reaching 46.0°C in several towns in Myanmar, still shy of the national record high of 47.2°C at Myinmu observed on May 14, 2010.
