India-Pakistan heat wave of 2015
India-Pakistan heat wave of 2015, extended period of extreme heat that spanned the Indian subcontinent during April, May, and June 2015 and resulted in more than 2,500 deaths in India and more than 1,100 deaths in Pakistan.
Heat waves are common in India between March and June, and the country’s meteorological service declares a heat wave when the air temperature at the surface rises by 5–6 °C (9–10.8 °F) above the normal daily maximum temperature of 40 °C (104 °F). As the Northern Hemisphere moves into the high-sun season (summer) during April, India becomes particularly prone to rapid heating. The monsoon rains, which provide relief from the spring heat, do not arrive in southern India until early June, and they typically do not fall on India’s northernmost reaches until early July. In the meantime, the Himalayas protect the subcontinent from incursions of cold air. In most years, some relief is found in the form of pre-monsoon rainfall driven by southwesterly winds passing over the Arabian Sea. From April to June 2015, however, a high-pressure system lingering over the subcontinent kept away the pre-monsoon rain.
Most of the fatalities attributed to the heat wave—resulting from heat exhaustion, dehydration, and heatstroke—occurred in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where the daytime surface air temperatures hovered between 40 and 45 °C (104 and 113 °F) during the second half of May. Several heat-related deaths were also reported in the states of Odisha (Orissa), Gujarat, and West Bengal.
The arrival of monsoon rains in India in June brought much-needed relief to most of India. However, parts of Pakistan’s neighbouring Sindh province had yet to experience the cooling effects of the monsoon and endured a period of oppressive heat in which more than 1,100 people died, making the heat wave the deadliest in the country’s history. A low-pressure system associated with the monsoon, stationed in the northern Arabian Sea, deprived the coastal city of Karachi and surrounding areas of the cooling sea breeze for much of June, and temperatures in the city peaked at 44.8 °C (112.6 °F) on June 20. High nighttime temperatures and humidity put strains on the electrical power grid, which resulted in power outages in some areas that rendered fans, water pumps, and air conditioners useless.