New Delhi, June 21 2024-
With Mumbai seeing the highest changes in the nighttime temperatures, India continues to suffer a severe heatwave, a new analysis on Friday showed climate change added nearly 50 to 80 nights each year where the temperature exceeded 25 degrees Celsius, with serious impacts on sleep and health.
Climate change is leading to a rise in nighttime warming, which is impacting sleep quality and human health in India and across the globe, said the analysis by Climate Central and Climate Trends.
Nighttime temperatures have increased even more rapidly than daytime temperatures as the world heats up due to climate change, primarily caused by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas.
As one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, India has experienced a significant rise in minimum nighttime temperatures over the last decade due to climate change.
The national capital on June 18 experienced its warmest night in at least 12 years, with the mercury touching 35.2 degrees Celsius, says the India Meteorological Department. This is the city’s highest minimum temperature since 1969.
The analysis shows that nearly 50 to 80 days each year were added above this threshold by climate change in cities across Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh between 2018 and 2023.
Among the metro cities, Mumbai has seen the highest changes in the nighttime temperatures, with the city experiencing an additional 65 days of warmer nights due to global warming.
West Bengal and Assam are the regions that have been most impacted, with cities like Jalpaiguri, Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh and Siliguri experiencing between 80 and 86 additional days each year above the 25 degrees threshold due to climate change, on average.
Several cities saw between 15 and 50 additional days where the minimum temperatures exceeded 25 degrees due to the influence of climate change, including Jaipur, with an additional 19 hot nights attributable to climate change.
Meanwhile, in both observations and in the counterfactual climate, the nighttime summer temperatures across India often exceed 20 degrees over the entire summer period.
The cities that had the largest number of days where the minimum temperature exceeded 20 degrees due to climate change are Gangtok, Darjeeling, Shimla, and Mysore, with an average of 54, 31, 30, and 26 days added by climate change, respectively.
Higher nighttime temperatures can cause physiological discomfort and impact human health by preventing body temperature from cooling off during the night, increasing mortality risks.
There is also a growing body of evidence that as nighttime temperatures rise, it is adversely affecting the quality and length of sleep.
Poor sleep adversely affects physical and mental health, cognitive functioning and even life expectancy. Hot nights can have disproportionate impacts on vulnerable groups, including the elderly and people, who do not have access to proper cooling mechanisms.
These findings come during a week that saw new records for nighttime heat in several Indian cities.
On June 19, Delhi shattered the all-time high minimum temperature record, with the mercury reaching 35.2 degrees overnight. Delhi recorded almost four numbers of additional nights over 25 degrees between 2018 and 2023, according to the Climate Central analysis.
On June 18, Alwar in Rajasthan had a minimum temperature of 37 degrees, the highest-ever nighttime temperature since records began in 1969.
Alwar experienced almost nine additional nights over 25 degrees that are attributable to climate change between 2018 and 2023.
In Uttar Pradesh, Lakhimpur Kheri, Shahjahanpur and Varanasi also witnessed their highest recorded minimum temperatures at 33 degrees, 33 and 33.6 degrees respectively this week.
Varanasi saw four additional nights over 25 degrees due to climate change from 2018 to 2023.
These increasingly frequent extreme nighttime temperatures are contributing to heat stress, exhaustion and heat-related deaths.
The current ongoing heatwave in India has been made hotter, frequent and more likely by climate change, according to scientific studies by World Weather Attribution and ClimaMeter.
Roxy Mathew Koll, Climate Scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, “The urban heat island effect is most visible in the nighttime temperatures. Cities turn into urban heat islands when buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit heat, causing cities to be several degrees hotter than surrounding rural areas.”
“During the day, the sun’s rays reach as shortwave radiation and heat the earth’s surface. At night, the heat escapes as longwave radiation. While shortwave radiation can easily penetrate through and reach the surface, the longwave gets trapped easily by concrete and clouds.”
Aarti Khosla, Director, of Climate Trends, said, “Like day temperatures, night temperatures have also shown constant and steady rise over the last few years. Warm nights have been punishing this summer with several cities shattering five decades of records. Cities will bear the highest brunt which will get worse due to the urban heat island effect.”
“Several studies have already established that by the turn of the century, without very large reductions in fossil fuel burning, nighttime temperatures will not fall below 25 degrees in some places during hot weather impacting one’s ability to recover for the next day. If we do not act now, nights will continue to be hotter, longer and sleepless, especially for the vulnerable.” (Agency)
The T20 World Cup format needs a radical change
The second League phase of the T20 World Cup 2024 has commenced. The term “Super 8” refers to the eight teams that have qualified to make it to the tournament’s semifinal stage. After that, it is a shoot-out amongst the 4 of them to make it to the final.
The ICC should be credited with involving 20 national sides to participate in this tournament, with half of them being non-Test playing countries. The shorter format of the game has been a great way to spread cricket around the world. A few of the minnow sides have shown that on a given day they could be a handful for the senior established ones. The United States of America was one team that shocked the cricketing world, by not only qualifying for the Super 8 but also by showing their ability to match the best. Scotland too were very impressive and with further exposure and bilateral matches with the top sides, many of the associate teams could improve immensely.
The business end of the tournament is how the Super 8 is being talked about. How can one associate it with business, when the sides are once again divided into 2 groups. It diffuses the very essence of a full-fledged competition, as teams even at this stage do not play each other.
The ODIs World Cup format since 1975 has gone through several changes. Finally, in 2023, 10 sides played against each other and the top 4 made it into the semi-final stage. One gathers that the 2027 World Cup will have 14 teams competing. This is super news, as the winner will need to showcase consistency over a longer period and meet challenges from all the 13 sides participating.
An ICC tournament is very serious and prestigious in all the formats of the game. This involves world cricket and the paucity of time is not an excuse one would associate to do so.
The limited-overs World Cup tournaments should have a consistent competing format. The ODI one is a tried and tested one and the next T20 World Cup should be played in a similar fashion.
The experiment of hosting the T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and the USA has not been an entirely satisfying one. The wickets and the weather in the US played havoc and were a cause for concern. The uncertain element that it led to made even the best of players and sides look worried and woebegone. Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka failed to qualify, and each one of them could not recover from their early debacle. This would never have been the reason, if the T20 WC’24 was played similarly to the ODI World Cup 2023, at the league stage.
There was another twist in the T20 World Cup 2024 as well. The sides, once they qualified were to be grouped according to their ICC ranking and hence India and Australia have been grouped along with Bangladesh and Afghanistan. In normal circumstances, the winner of Group B, being Australia, would have been in the other half.
India, Australia and South Africa progressed by winning all the matches that they played. However, both India and South Africa having played matches on wickets that were not favourable to batters and now have a question mark over their head. Their top batters have struggled to get runs and those who have had a few good innings have looked scratchy and uncertain.
The West Indian wickets may bring a bit of sanity to the playing conditions. The batters should once again come to the fore. This will be interesting as the bowlers who may have looked to be match winners in the initial league stage, will not get the assistance that they have got used to.
India and Australia look to be the favourites. Being grouped in the Super 8 stage, their encounter will not be a do-or-die affair. Both of them lack mighty strikers and rely a fair amount on their bowlers to get them a win. However, they are rated as the top sides of T20 cricket by the ICC and this comes through a year of consistent performances. For India, a 17-year wait after their 2007 win is a long one. However, one feels this team has the credentials to lift the trophy and bring joy to the millions of their followers.
The West Indian side is a bunch of carefree hitters. They require just one of them to play a blinder to get them a good score. However, their bowlers are not consistent and their catching ability is not reliable, but with the crowd behind them, they could pull off a heist.
South Africa, have all the ingredients to be winners. Unfortunately, they have choked at every World Cup event that they have participated in till now. A win would require them to get past that mental anguish. They have managed to win a few close matches while qualifying. This should give them the confidence to get over it.
England having scraped through to the Super 8 are the defending champions. One feels that without Ben Stokes, they do not have the firepower in the middle-order to be dangerous to notch up a formidable total. A win for them would require them to play well above what they have been doing recently.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the USA have done well to qualify. However, they are rank outsiders who may cause a bit of a stir in a match or two.
For them to win, would be a fairytale story.
The T20 format has made its mark. The ICC needs to restructure the entire format in the next edition of the cup. A 10-team battle with each side playing one and the other is the only way to unearth the top 4 sides and thereafter, the winner.
More matches and an even contest would be beneficial for the two “Cs”, Commerce and Cricket! (Agency)