The 2022 India–Pakistan heat wave was an extreme weather event which resulted in the hottest March in the subcontinent since 1901. The hot season arrived unusually early in the year and extended into April, affecting a large part of India's northwest and Pakistan.[1][2] The heatwave was combined with a drought, with rainfall being only a quarter to a third of normal. It occurred during a La Niña event, in which heat records are generally less likely.[3]
Several cities across India had high temperatures over 42.8 °C (109.0 °F), with Wardha rising to 45 °C (113 °F).[4]InPakistan, the city of Nawabshah recorded a high temperature of 49.5 °C (121.1 °F)[5] and Jacobabad and Sibi both reached 47 °C (117 °F). Pakistan's Minister of Climate ChangeSherry Rehman described it as a "spring-less year".[6]
During the 2022 food crises, India began taking steps to export more rice and wheat, in part to fill the gaps created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[8] However, the heatwave caused increasing local prices and lower supply, issues also exacerbated by the war increasing fertilizer prices.[9] The heat wave occurred mostly during the final weeks of the wheat growing season, killing the plants shortly before harvest.[3][10]
The heatwave strongly impacted agriculture in India. At the same time early rainfall in India was 71% lower than the norm. In Punjab, the main crop producer in India, 15% of the harvest was lost and in some regions even 30%.[11]
The heatwave caused a reverse in policy by Indian government, from trying to import to address the crises, to halting exports.[12]
The heatwave has also severely impacted peach and apple harvests in Balochistan.[13]
The Hassanabad Bridge in Hunza Valley, Pakistan collapsed after a glacial lake released large amounts of water into a stream caused by the heatwave.[15]
India faced its worst electricity shortage in more than six years, and demand due to the heat wave strained the electric grid in the country.[16] Scorching temperatures forced early closures of schools and sent people indoors.[16]Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh all reduced power allocated to industry due to an increase in power consumption dedicated to cooling.
The high power demand increased demand for coal in India, which is the main source of electricity generation in the country. The state-run enterprise Coal India increased its output by 27%. Indian Railways had to cancel hundreds of passenger trains as an emergency measure to prioritize hauling coal to coal power plants to avoid blackouts.[17] The state also requested that electricity providers imported some 19 million tonnes of coal before the end of June.[18]
On Friday, 29 April 2022, demand for electricity reached 207 gigawatts, an all-time high in India, representing an increase of two gigawatts of demand over the previous day.[13][19]
The occurrence of the heatwave was consistent with underlying climate change in Pakistan and in India.[22] Indian scientists said that the major proximate cause was "weak western disturbances – storms originating in the Mediterranean region – which meant little pre-monsoon rainfall in north-western and central India".[23]
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