Extreme temperatures, torrent of rain: How Asia is facing the worst of climate crisis

Asia is under siege from the climate crisis. The continent is facing record temperatures and a torrent of rainfall – and experts warn that the worst is yet to come. Let’s take a closer look at what is happening: India As per The Guardian, India has been swinging from one extreme to another. February saw temperatures reach highest levels since 1901, while March saw much wetter weather than normal. April also saw unusually cool and wet conditions, and May followed with cool, balmy weather.

Over the past couple of weeks, India has witnessed an onslaught of rain.

The northern and north-western states in particular have born the brunt of the rain and faced flood-like conditions. India’s capital of New Delhi has been most adversely affected with the River Yamuna being in a spate for over a week – leaving low-lying areas flooded. The water level of the Yamuna in Delhi breached the danger mark again on Sunday following a surge in discharge from the Hathnikund Barrage into the river after heavy rain in parts of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Revenue Minister Atishi on Saturday said the Delhi government is on high alert due to discharge of over 2 lakh cusecs of water from the Hathnikund Barrage into the river and that some parts of Yamuna Khadar (floodplains) might get inundated if the water level rises to 206.7 metres. As many as 158 people have died in rain-related incidents such as landslides, flash floods and cloud burst besides road accidents during the ongoing monsoon season since June 24 till date, according to the Himachal Pradesh emergency response system. The state has suffered losses to the tune of Rs 5,115 crore. Nearly 700 roads are closed for vehicular traffic in the state. Rajasthan has witnessed heavy rains with the city of Jodhpur experiencing severe flooding on Friday. According to Hindustan Times, two hours of downpour turned the inner city streets into rivers leaving roads from Jalori Met to Sardarpura submerged and pedestrians fighting through knee-deep water. The platform and tracks of Jodhpur railway station were left waterlogged and train services disrupted. In Kota, videos of crocodiles entering residential areas in Kota went viral.

This, a day after the state witnessed light to moderate rains in some parts and heavy rains at isolated places. Haryana has seen rain-related incidents claim 36 lives across the state. The recent heavy rainfall in the region inundated vast tracts of agricultural land as well as many residential and commercial areas in the twin towns of Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment. Ambala district has been the hardest hit due to the recent flooding. Ambala City’s famous wholesale cloth market is also staring at losses as the floodwaters entered a number of cloth showrooms and businesses came to a standstill. Vishal Batra, the president of the wholesale market, said that floodwaters entered most of the shops and the losses are estimated to be around Rs 100 crore. There are around 900 wholesale cloth shops and showrooms located in the area which cater to buyers from Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country. Worse, North India is in for more pain from Tuesday. “Increase in rainfall activity over northwest India from 25th July is expected," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday. “Heavy rainfall is likely at isolated places over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan." States such as Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan received nearly double their normal rainfall so far this season. India has also faced an intense heatwave in 2023 in which 264 people have been left dead, as per The Tribune. According to the newspaper, this is the highest toll for any heatwave in the past five years. Kerala reported 120 deaths due to heatwave, while Gujarat reported 35 deaths. Telangana and Maharashtra reported 20 and 14 deaths respectively, while Himachal Pradesh reported nine deaths. China China has been facing dramatic swings between extreme heat and intense rainfall in 2023. China typically sees heavy rain in late July, but storms have become more intense and unpredictable in recent years. Torrential rain also submerged parts of China’s northeast on Saturday, damaging dozens of houses and ruining crops in the region known as the nation’s breadbasket. [caption id=“attachment_12904872” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] In a village in Hangzhou, eastern China, on Saturday, severe rain burst a river bank, flooding homes and sweeping people and their possessions away, leaving two people missing and five people dead, according to state media. Pictures from the Beijing Youth Daily showed muddy water flowed through Image Courtesy agencies[/caption] Almost 5,600 people were evacuated by authorities in Liaoning province, reported state broadcaster CCTV, after several cities received more than 100 millimetres of rain. One district of provincial capital Dalian received 93 millimetres of rain in an hour. Rescue workers were seen wading through water up to their knees with inflatable dinghies, pictures published by CCTV showed. About 54 hectares of crops were damaged in the area around Jinzhou and the coastal city of Huludao. Parts of the northeast had been hit by drought in May and June but recent rain has alleviated the situation, the agriculture ministry said on Friday. It added that there were still risks to local crops - mainly corn and soybeans - with this year’s El Nino weather pattern likely to bring more extreme weather. The average number of high-temperature days stood at 4.1 in January-June, already higher than the full-year average of 2.2 days. Temperatures are expected to climb further in July and August. In June, temperatures averaged 21.1 Celsius (70 Fahrenheit), or 0.7C higher than normal and the second-highest since 1961, with 70 monitoring stations across China smashing records.

Northern China has borne the brunt of the extreme heat.

In June, Beijing logged 13.2 days with temperatures of at least 35C, the highest number of super hot days for the month since records began in 1961, with the mercury rising to at least 40C on a few days. As per Al Jazeera, last week saw a remote town in Turpan Depression witnessing a maximum temperatures of 52.2C – breaking China’s 2015 record of 50.3C. As per The Guardian, Beijing on Tuesday broke its record for high-temperature days in a year. Thus far Beijing has recorded 27 days above 35C. Meanwhile, temperature in Beijing’s southern suburbs hit 36.3C on Wednesday. Japan Japan in mid-July issued heatstroke alerts to tens of millions of people as near-record high temperatures scorched swathes of the country, while torrential rain pummelled other regions. National broadcaster NHK warned viewers that the heat was at life-threatening levels, as temperatures soared to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some places, including the capital Tokyo. “Please stay hydrated and use air conditioners appropriately, and refrain from outings that seem difficult,” a news presenter said. The government issued heatstroke alerts for 20 of the country’s 47 prefectures, mainly in the east and southwest, affecting tens of millions of people. Heat can kill by inducing heatstroke, which damages the brain, kidneys and other organs, but it can also trigger other conditions such as a heart attack or breathing problems. Kiryu city in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, saw the mercury reach 39.7C while Hachioji in western Tokyo reached 38.9C, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. [caption id=“attachment_12909462” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] People carry umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun as they walk across an intersection Monday, July 17, 2023, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)[/caption] Japan’s highest temperature ever recorded was 41.1C, which was first recorded in Kumagaya city, in Saitama, in 2018 and then matched in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka, in 2020. Some places experienced their highest temperatures in more than four decades including Hirono town in Fukushima prefecture with 37.3C, and hot spring resort city Nasushiobara with 35.4C, according to the weather agency’s data. This came just days after torrential rain pounded southwestern Japan –triggering floods and mudslides and leaving two people dead and at least six others missing. “It’s raining like never before,” a spokesman for Japan’s Meteorological Agency was quoted as saying by CNN. A man was found dead in a vehicle that fell into a swollen river in Yamaguchi prefecture. In the town of Soeda in Fukuoka prefecture, two people were buried by a mudslide. One was rescued alive but the other died, according to prefectural officials. In Kurume, also in Fukuoka, a mudslide hit seven houses, burying 21 people. Six were able to escape on their own. Rescue workers extracted nine people alive and were working to remove five others, but one remained missing, according to the disaster agency. Toyota Motor Corp. suspended night-time production at three Fukuoka factories on Monday as a safety precaution. Normal production was expected to resume on Tuesday. In the city of Karatsu in Saga prefecture, rescue workers were searching for three people whose houses were hit by a mudslide, the agency said. Video on NHK public television showed one of the destroyed houses reduced to just a roof sitting on the muddy ground amid flowing floodwaters. At least three other people were missing elsewhere in the region. NHK showed water from the swollen Yamakuni River gushing over a bridge in the town of Yabakei in Oita prefecture. Afghanistan The toll from overnight flash floods caused by torrential rain in central Afghanistan has risen to 26, with more than 40 people missing, officials said Sunday. Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for the State Ministry for Disaster Management, said a total of 31 people had been killed nationwide in floods since Friday and extensive damage had been caused to property and farmland. Nationwide, “in the last four months, 214 people were killed in natural disaster-related incidents”, Rahimi said. Afghanistan’s envoy at the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in June said the country is experiencing the most devastating impacts of climate change. Bangladesh Bangladesh in June suffered its longest heatwave in decades. Temperatures in the South Asian nation’s capital of Dhaka have surged to around 40 degrees Celsius with the poor bearing the brunt of the blazing sun. “We have never seen such a prolonged heatwave since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971,” said Bazlur Rashid, a senior official at the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. Tens of thousands of primary schools were shut down by the government, and electricity production has been drastically cut, even as demand for air conditioners and fans has surged. Pakistan Pakistan has been grappling with the effects of climate-induced rains and floods. Pakistan is among the top 10 countries highly vulnerable to climate change. Last summer’s flash floods killed over 1,700 people and left millions homeless, besides incurring $30 billion in losses to the national economy.

The current monsoon rains which began in June have claimed the lives of 55 people including eight children.

What do experts say? Experts say Asia, particularly South Asia is extremely vulnerable to climate change. As Saleemul Haq, director at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, told Al Jazeera, “Over a billion and a half people are living in an area that is not such a big part of the world. It has major river systems from the Hindu Kush and the Himalayan mountain regions flowing through.” Pakistan-based climate scientist Fahad Saeed added that climate change has upset the ‘delicate balance’ needed for crops to grow – which is bound to impact South Asia’s standing as the region that feeds the world. The Tribune quoted the IMD chief as saying that an examination of records showed India had been facing an increase in the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme heat conditions due to climate change. “The irony of it is that the poor of the world are actually victims of climate change,” even if they aren’t the ones who “created the problem,” Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment and veteran Indian environmentalist previously told CNN. “Floods, droughts and other devastating climate events are “all showing us very clearly what will the future be,” Narain added. With inputs from agencies