Daytime Heat Wave Seasonal Variability over India

Abstract

Around thirty percent of the world's population is already exposed to potentially life-threatening heat waves (HW) for a period of twenty days or plus yearly. The heat wave is not just intensifying, its spatiotemporal variability in the current climate crisis scenario is also persuading towards less warming-prone as well as the prominent warming regions. The present study is the discussion of seasonal variability in daytime heat waves (HW) over entire Indian states for 1991–2020 with the help of the NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC) global temperature dataset. The monthly variation of HW over India is observed, which clearly explains the more frequent occurrence of heat waves after the year 2000, especially during the months of March and July. However, the monthly HW distribution offers clarity on long-term events. March revealed an increasing trend of daytime HW in northern India, providing valuable insights into regional climate patterns.The month of July also evidences the rising rate of daytime HW, especially over the western and central parts of India. The seasonality index indicates that HW is rising during the months of March and June over the entire India as well. Understanding the HW seasonality of the entire Indian state will assist policymakers in designing regional-scale policies accordingly.