Tuesday, May 26, 2020

What a threshold

Parts of India routinely get ridiculously hot.  The news today:
NEW DELHI: Heatwave conditions intensified in most of the northern states of India on Monday, with Churu in Rajasthan scorching at 47.5 degrees Celsius and the mercury breaching the 46-degree mark in parts of the national capital.
And look at the rather extraordinarily high threshold they seem to set there for calling it a heatwave:

In England, by comparison, you get the impression it's something like two days above 28 degrees.

I would still like to know what happens to the death rate in India during its heat waves.  I mean, surely it must increase substantially, but you never hear about this.  (Unlike when you have a heat wave in Europe or Russia.)

Update:  yes, there is research about this, and I think I might have even linked to this paper before.  But the numbers cited for increased deaths always sound too low to me.

1 comment:

John said...

I would still like to know what happens to the death rate in India during its heat waves. I mean, surely it must increase substantially, but you never hear about this. (Unlike when you have a heat wave in Europe or Russia.)

It is so hard to know what the real stats are in a country like India. Many deaths would go unreported and the bureaucracy there has woeful efficiency.