Ahmed fears things will get worse. It was here, in 2021, that the highest temperature in the world was recorded for May, 54 degrees Celsius. This year, he said, is even warmer. “Last week was incredibly hot at Turbat. “It was not like April,” he said. As the heatwave has exacerbated huge energy shortages in India and Pakistan, Turbat, a city of about 200,000 people, no longer receives any electricity, with up to nine hours of unloading each day, meaning air conditioners and refrigerators do not can work. “We live in hell,” Ahmet said. It was a similar story across the subcontinent, where the reality of climate change is being felt by more than 1.5 billion people, as hot summer temperatures have reached two months earlier and monsoon relief is months away. Northwest and central India experienced the warmest April in 122 years, while Jacobabad, a city in Pakistan’s Sindh province, reached 49 degrees Celsius on Saturday, one of the highest April temperatures ever recorded in the world. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST The heat is already having a devastating effect on crops, including wheat and various fruits and vegetables. In India, yields from wheat crops have fallen by as much as 50% in some of the worst-hit areas, exacerbating fears of global shortages following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has already had a devastating effect on supplies. In Balochistan’s Mastung district, known for its apple and peach orchards, crops have been decimated. Haji Ghulam Sarwar Shahwani, a farmer, watched anxiously for his apple trees to bloom more than a month earlier, and then desperately as the flower stung and then died in the unusually dry heat, killing almost his entire crop. Farmers in the area also spoke of a “drastic” effect on their wheat crops, and the area has also recently been subjected to an 18-hour power outage. “This is the first time the weather has caused such devastation to our crops in this area,” Shahwani said. “We do not know what to do and there is no government assistance. Cultivation has decreased. very few fruits now grow. Farmers have lost billions because of this weather. We are suffering and we can not stand it. “ A man pours water on his face to cool off in Islamabad, Pakistan, last month. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s minister for climate change, told the Guardian that the country was facing an “existential crisis” as emergencies were felt from north to south. Rehman warned that the heatwave had caused glaciers in the north of the country to melt at an unprecedented rate and that thousands were in danger of being trapped by floods. He also said that the low temperatures affected not only the crops but also the water supply. “The water tanks are drying up. “Our large dams are dead at the moment and water sources are scarce,” he said. Rehman said the heatwave should be a wake-up call to the international community. “Climate and weather are here to stay and will actually accelerate in scale and intensity if world leaders do not act now,” he said. Experts say the hot heat being felt across the subcontinent was probably a taste of what will follow as global warming continues to accelerate. Abhiyant Tiwari, assistant professor and program director at the Gujarat Institute for Disaster Management, said: “Extreme, frequent and long periods of heatwave are no longer a future danger. It’s already here and it’s inevitable. “ The World Meteorological Organization said in a statement that temperatures in India and Pakistan were “consistent with what we expect in a changing climate.” “Heat waves are more frequent and intense and start earlier than in the past.” A heat wave is declared when the maximum temperature is above 40 C and at least 4.5 C above normal. Over the weekend in India, Bikaner was the hottest part of the country at 47.1 degrees Celsius, according to the Meteorological Department of India. However, in some parts of northwestern India, satellite imagery showed that the earth’s surface temperatures had exceeded 60 degrees Celsius – unprecedented for this time of year, when normal surface temperatures are between 45 and 55 degrees Celsius. “The hottest temperatures recorded are southeast and southwest of Ahmedabad, with maximum surface temperatures around 65 degrees Celsius,” the European Space Agency said on its website. High temperatures have put enormous pressure on electricity demand in both India and Pakistan, where people have had to endure hours of power outages amid catastrophic heat. On Friday, the peak of energy demand in India reached a record high of 207,111 MW, according to the government. India is facing its worst electricity shortage in six decades. Power outages lasting more than eight hours have been imposed in states including Jharkhand, Haryana, Bihar, Punjab and Maharashtra, as domestic coal supplies have plummeted and imported coal prices have soared. In an effort to speed up coal transport across the country, Indian Railways has canceled more than 600 passenger and postal train journeys to pave the way for coal transport to power stations.
