JASMINE NG: Asia is still in the grip of a scorching heat wave, reflecting climate experts’ predictions that 2023 could be the world’s hottest year.
A growing El Nino weather trend is pushing temperatures to unprecedented levels in southern regions of the continent, a concerning level ahead of the northern hemisphere summer.
Vietnam reported its highest-ever temperature of 44.2 degrees Celsius over the weekend, prompting power shortage warnings, and Laos is also believed to have broken records. After the heat index hit the “danger” level, the Philippines reduced classroom hours, reflecting the potentially lethal combination of heat and humidity.
Heat and extreme weather due to greenhouse gases
The burning temperatures are part of a trend of growing extreme weather induced by the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is pushing the world into uncharted territory.
The extreme heat is putting governments’ abilities to preserve public health and avert serious disruptions to agricultural and power generation in economies still rebuilding from the effects of Covid-19 to the test.
El Nino, which is characterized by rising ocean temperatures across the Pacific, has far-reaching effects on global weather patterns. It might provide relief to drought-stricken Argentina and the southern United States while also blanketing areas of Asia and Australia with hotter, drier weather. Crops such as coffee, sugar, palm oil, and cocoa would be particularly vulnerable.
According to Tieh-Yong Koh, an associate professor and weather and climate scientist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, the long dryness over Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand is due to suppressed rainfall over the last winter.
He explained that because dry soil heats up faster than damp soil, a hot anomaly arises naturally as spring approaches and that this has been worsened by global warming over the previous decades.
Temperatures in Thailand remained above 40 degrees Celsius in several northern and central regions for much of last week, driving up power demand to a new peak. A group of businesses and banks has requested the government create an action plan to deal with an expected three-year drought.
Rainfall in Malaysia might be 40% lower in some parts, threatening palm oil production in one of the world’s largest exporters of the commodity. Authorities are keeping a watchful eye on the rise of forest fires and air pollution. An El Nino in 2015 triggered a particularly bad period of haze, which was one of Southeast Asia’s biggest environmental disasters.
In other regions of Asia, searing temperatures have roasted parts of China, India, and Bangladesh in recent weeks. Last month, Yunnan province, a major aluminium hub in southwest China, saw its worst drought in a decade.
India is on high alert for more heat waves following intense temperatures in April that forced school closures in certain states and caused at least 11 people to die of heat stroke while attending an event.
