South Asian heat wave perplexes climatologists
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028996
BBC : Last week more than 1000 people died in Pakistan and 2000 in India during the worst heat wave to hit South Asia in three decades. Although a high of 43 °C had been predicted in Karachi, Pakistan, the temperature felt more like 49 °C. Scientists working to understand the extreme weather event say an unfortunate series of factors came into play simultaneously: low air pressure, high humidity, and lack of wind. Changes in atmospheric circulation are to blame, but their cause remains unknown. Despite the warning of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that heat waves will increase in South Asia due to global warming, scientists say that heat waves have not been as intensely studied as other, more quickly evolving phenomena, such as cyclones and flooding, and so are not as well understood.
