Pakistan Reels Under Record Heat of 129 F.
Temperatures reach
record high in Pakistan
Meteorologists record a temperature of 53.7C (129F)
in Mohenjo-daro as heatwave continues across Pakistan and India
The Guardian
(U.K.), June 2, 2010
Mohenjo-Daro, a
ruined city in what is now Pakistan that contains the last traces of a
4,000-year-old civilisation that flourished on the banks of the river
Indus, today entered the modern history books after government
meteorologists recorded a temperature of 53.7C (129F). Only Al
'Aziziyah, in Libya (57.8C in 1922), Death valley in California (56.7 in
1913) and Tirat Zvi in Israel (53.9 in 1942) are thought to have been
hotter.
Temperatures in
the nearest town, Larkana, have been only slightly lower in the last
week, with 53C recorded last Wednesday. As the temperatures peaked, four
people died, including a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder
and an elderly woman. Dozens are said to have fainted.
The extreme heat
was exacerbated by chronic power cuts which have prevented people from
using air-conditioning. The electricity has cut out for eight hours each
day as part of a severe load-shedding regime that has caused riots in
other parts of Pakistan where cities are experiencing a severe heatwave
with temperatures of between 43C and 47C.
"It's very
tough," said M B Kalhoro, a local correspondent for Dawn.com, an online
newspaper. "When the power is out, people just stay indoors all the
time."
The blistering
heat now engulfing Pakistan stretches to India where more than 1,000
people have reportedly died of heatstroke or heart attacks in the last
two months. Although Europe and China have experienced cooler than
average winters, record or well-above average temperatures have been
recorded in Tibet and Burma this year.
Southern Europe
was yesterday rapidly warming after a particularly cool winter. Thirteen
provinces in southern Spain, including Andalucia, Murcia and the Canary
islands, were put on "yellow alert" after meteorologists forecast
temperatures rising to 38C (99F) in Cadiz, Córdoba, Jaén, Malaga and
Seville.
According to the
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the national climate
monitoring service that measures global temperatures by satellite, 2010
is shaping up to be one of the hottest years on record. The first four
months were the hottest ever measured, with record spring temperatures
in northern Africa, south Asia and Canada.
The global
temperature for March was a record 13.5C (56.3F) and average ocean
temperatures were also the hottest for any March since record-keeping
began in 1880.
As a result of
high sea surface temperatures, the Atlantic hurricane season, which
officially started today is now expected to be one of the most intense
in years. Last week NOAA predicted 14 to 23 named storms, including
eight to 14 hurricanes, three to seven of which were likely to be
"major" storms, with winds of at least 111mph. This is compared to an
average six-month season of 11 named storms, six of which become
hurricanes, two of them major.
On Sunday,
scientists reported that Africa's Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest
freshwater lake in the world, is now at its warmest in 1,500 years,
threatening the fishing industry on which several million lives depend.
The lake's surface waters, at 26C (78.8F), have reached temperatures
that are "unprecedented since AD500," they reported in the journal
Nature Geoscience.
Some scientists
have suggested that the warming experienced around the world this year
is strongly linked to warmer than usual currents in the Pacific Ocean, a
regular phenomenon known as El Nino. Others say that it is consistent
with long-term climate change.
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Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
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