[ { "id": "odisha1998", "year": 1998, "when": "May 1998", "place": "Odisha, India", "title": "The heatwave that taught Odisha to plan", "peak": "Coastal Odisha, not known for extreme heat", "deaths": 2042, "toll": "2,042 deaths from heatstroke recorded by hospitals", "what": "Heat struck a coastal state with little past experience of extreme heat, and hospitals counted more than two thousand heatstroke deaths in a single month.", "changed": "Odisha wrote its first heat action plan in 1999. The next year, recorded heat deaths fell to 91.", "nodes": ["heatstroke","deaths"], "sources": [ { "label": "Down To Earth: how to fight heat wave the Odisha way", "url": "https://www.downtoearth.org.in/environment/how-to-fight-heat-wave-the-odisha-way-49950" } ] }, { "id": "ap2003", "year": 2003, "when": "May–June 2003", "place": "Andhra Pradesh, India", "title": "Three weeks that killed more than 1,300", "peak": "Weeks of heat across the state", "deaths": 1317, "toll": "1,317 deaths in Andhra Pradesh in three weeks, as reported then", "what": "A long spell of heat before the monsoon killed more than 1,300 people in Andhra Pradesh in three weeks.", "changed": "The same region would be hit again, even harder, in 2015.", "nodes": ["deaths","informal"], "sources": [ { "label": "The Tribune, 8 June 2003", "url": "https://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030608/main6.htm" } ] }, { "id": "ahmedabad2010", "year": 2010, "when": "May 2010", "place": "Ahmedabad, India", "title": "The heatwave behind South Asia’s first city heat plan", "peak": "46.8 °C", "deaths": 1344, "toll": "An estimated 1,344 excess deaths, 43% more than in the same weeks of 2009 and 2011", "what": "The toll was measured as excess deaths: the deaths above normal for those weeks, found by comparing death records with other years.", "changed": "In 2013 Ahmedabad launched South Asia’s first heat action plan: early warnings, prepared hospitals and outreach. An estimated 1,190 deaths a year were later avoided.", "nodes": ["underreport","deaths","hsys"], "sources": [ { "label": "Hess et al., Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2018", "url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6236972/" } ] }, { "id": "southasia2015", "year": 2015, "when": "May–June 2015", "place": "India and Pakistan", "title": "South Asia’s deadliest recent heatwave", "peak": "40–45 °C for weeks in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana", "atLeast": true, "deaths": 3600, "toll": "More than 2,500 deaths in India, mostly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and more than 1,100 in Pakistan, centred on Karachi", "what": "Heat swept India’s south-east in May, then struck Karachi in June.", "changed": "In the years after, Indian states and cities wrote dozens of heat action plans, and a 2023 review of 37 found that most had yet to secure funding or a vulnerability assessment.", "nodes": ["deaths","underfund"], "sources": [ { "label": "Encyclopaedia Britannica: India–Pakistan heat wave of 2015", "url": "https://www.britannica.com/print/article/2028529" }, { "label": "Centre for Policy Research, 2023: how is India adapting to heatwaves?", "url": "https://cprindia.org/briefsreports/how-is-india-adapting-to-heatwaves-an-assessment-of-heat-action-plans-with-insights-for-transformative-climate-action/" } ] }, { "id": "sea2016", "year": 2016, "when": "April 2016", "place": "Thailand and mainland Southeast Asia", "title": "El Niño and warming break Southeast Asia’s records", "peak": "44.6 °C at Mae Hong Son, Thailand’s highest ever at the time", "deaths": null, "toll": "No regional death count", "what": "A strong El Niño drove record heat across mainland Southeast Asia. Researchers found El Niño caused about half of the extra warmth and global warming about a third.", "changed": "The researchers found that since 1980 every April after an El Niño has set a new temperature record in the region.", "nodes": ["droughts","demand"], "sources": [ { "label": "NASA Earth Observatory, 2016", "url": "https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=87981" }, { "label": "University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, on Thirumalai et al., Nature Communications, 2017", "url": "https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2017/06/scientists-unravel-how-el-nino-and-global-warming-combine-to-cause-record-breaking-heat-in-southeast-asia/" } ] }, { "id": "southasia2022", "year": 2022, "when": "March–April 2022", "place": "India and Pakistan", "title": "The spring that came months too hot", "peak": "49 °C in Pakistan; India’s hottest March in 122 years", "atLeast": true, "deaths": 90, "toll": "At least 90 deaths reported", "what": "Heat arrived in March, before the wheat was ready. Yields fell by an estimated 10–35% in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, and power cuts and forest fires followed.", "changed": "Scientists found climate change made it about 30 times more likely, and about 1 °C hotter.", "nodes": ["harvests","prices","power"], "sources": [ { "label": "World Meteorological Organization, 2022: climate change made the heatwave 30 times more likely", "url": "https://public.wmo.int/node/14883" }, { "label": "Carbon Brief, 2022", "url": "https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-made-india-and-pakistans-2022-early-heatwave-30-times-more-likely" } ] }, { "id": "asia2023", "year": 2023, "when": "April 2023", "place": "Bangladesh, India, Laos and Thailand", "title": "Humid heat that was near impossible without climate change", "peak": "45.4 °C at Tak, Thailand’s highest ever", "deaths": null, "toll": "No regional death count", "what": "The heat index passed the dangerous 41 °C mark across large parts of South and Southeast Asia. In Bangladesh and India such humid heat used to come less than once a century; it can now be expected about every five years.", "changed": "Scientists found it at least 30 times more likely because of climate change, and the heat in Laos and Thailand virtually impossible without it.", "nodes": ["heatstroke","demand"], "sources": [ { "label": "World Weather Attribution, 2023", "url": "https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/?p=1870" }, { "label": "Yale Environment 360, 2023", "url": "https://e360.yale.edu/digest/april-2023-heat-wave-india-thailand-climate-change" } ] }, { "id": "asia2024", "year": 2024, "when": "April 2024", "place": "South and Southeast Asia", "title": "Asia’s hottest April: schools shut from Dhaka to Manila", "peak": "48.2 °C at Chauk, Myanmar’s highest April temperature on record", "deaths": null, "toll": "At least 28 heat deaths reported in Bangladesh in April; likely an undercount", "what": "Bangladesh closed schools for about 33 million children and the Philippines moved 5,288 schools to remote learning. In South Asia, a 30-day heatwave like it became about 45 times more likely.", "changed": "Scientists found climate change made it about 1 °C hotter. Surges in heat deaths were also reported in Thailand and the Philippines.", "nodes": ["schoolclose","learning","deaths"], "sources": [ { "label": "World Weather Attribution, reported by Down To Earth, 2024", "url": "https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/climate-change-responsible-for-over-80-of-temperature-rise-within-asia-last-month-the-hottest-april-ever-wwa-96153" }, { "label": "Borneo Post (AFP), 2024: Myanmar records 48.2 °C", "url": "https://www.theborneopost.com/2024/04/30/myanmar-records-hottest-ever-april-temperature-of-48-2c/" }, { "label": "NBC News, 2024: school closures in the Philippines and Bangladesh", "url": "https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/schools-close-extreme-heat-philippines-bangladesh-asia-rcna149485" } ] }, { "id": "india2024", "year": 2024, "when": "May–June 2024", "place": "Northern India", "title": "Weeks of record heat in the north", "peak": "Nearly 50 °C in parts of the north; Delhi’s hottest night in more than five decades", "deaths": 110, "toll": "110 heat deaths and more than 40,000 suspected heatstroke cases officially recorded from 1 March to 18 June", "what": "On the final day of voting, 33 polling staff died of heat in Uttar Pradesh alone. Official counts kept rising for weeks as states reported in.", "changed": "Central government hospitals were told to set up heatwave units. Officials said the real toll was expected to be higher.", "nodes": ["elections","heatstroke","underreport"], "sources": [ { "label": "The Tribune (PTI), 2024: 110 deaths, 40,000 suspected heatstroke cases", "url": "https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/india-reports-110-deaths-40-000-heatstroke-cases-this-summer-632500/amp" }, { "label": "AFP via Malay Mail, 2 June 2024", "url": "https://www.malaymail.com/amp/news/world/2024/06/02/heatstroke-killed-33-indian-polling-staff-on-last-voting-day-says-state-election-chief/137732" } ] }, { "id": "southasia2026", "year": 2026, "when": "April 2026", "place": "India and Pakistan", "title": "A pre-monsoon heatwave made three times more likely", "peak": "Above 46 °C in many cities", "atLeast": true, "deaths": 47, "toll": "At least 37 heat deaths reported in India and 10 in Karachi; likely undercounted", "what": "Fifteen days of heat in late April pushed India’s electricity demand to a record and brought farm drought to more than a million square kilometres.", "changed": "Scientists found April heat like this now returns about every five years.", "nodes": ["demand","droughts"], "sources": [ { "label": "World Weather Attribution, 2026", "url": "https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-exposes-hundreds-of-millions-to-longer-and-deadlier-pre-monsoon-heat-in-south-asia/" }, { "label": "Mongabay, 2026", "url": "https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/climate-change-triples-chance-of-deadly-2026-south-asia-pre-monsoon-heatwave-report/" } ] } ]