India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, New Delhi, India.
Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 17;12(1):19768. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-24065-0.
Heat waves are often termed as the silent killer and have become even more important as recent studies suggest that the heat wave have become second most devastating extreme weather events in terms of human deaths and losses. It is also been largely realised by scientific community that it is not just the high temperatures which are responsible for the gruesome effect of heat waves but several other meteorological parameters play a vital role in aggravating the impact and causing much more damages. In view of the above the attention of scientific community, weather forecasters as well as disaster managers has shifted to also take into account the different meteorological parameters like maximum and minimum temperatures, relative humidity, wind speed, duration/spell of heat waves and its intensity which are aggravating the impact of heat stress. In this background, this study is undertaken as an attempt to quantify the effect of different meteorological parameters on heat wave on different regions of India for different summer months (March, April, May and June). In this study the impact of individual meteorological parameter as well their cumulative effect is studied based on data of 30 years (1981-2010) for 300 stations. The effect of different meteorological parameters is identified for different months for different regions of the country. Also the cumulative scores are calculated for different regions considering different meteorological parameters, as a first initiative to perform heat hazard analysis and zonation over the entire country. This could serve as initial step for planning mitigation and adaptation strategies throughout the country. These scores as thresholds for different regions may be also useful for operational forecaster's for early impact based warning services as well as for the disaster managers, for taking effective and timely actions.
热浪通常被称为“无声杀手”，由于最近的研究表明，热浪已经成为第二大致命的极端天气事件，仅次于人类死亡和损失，因此它变得更加重要。科学界也已经意识到，导致热浪可怕影响的不仅仅是高温，还有其他几个气象参数在加剧影响和造成更大破坏方面发挥着重要作用。鉴于上述情况，科学界、天气预报员和灾害管理人员的注意力已经转移，开始考虑其他气象参数，如最高和最低温度、相对湿度、风速、热浪持续时间/强度及其对热应激的影响。在此背景下，本研究试图量化不同气象参数对印度不同地区不同夏季（3 月、4 月、5 月和 6 月）热浪的影响。本研究基于 30 年（1981-2010 年）的 300 个站点数据，研究了个别气象参数及其累积效应的影响。确定了不同地区不同月份不同气象参数的影响。还考虑了不同气象参数，为不同地区计算了累积分数，作为在全国范围内进行热危害分析和分区的初步举措。这可以作为在全国范围内规划缓解和适应策略的初始步骤。这些分数可以作为不同地区的阈值，为运营预报员提供基于早期影响的预警服务，也为灾害管理人员采取有效和及时的行动提供参考。
