It is believed that a return of the El Niño weather phenomenon this year will cause temperatures to rise even further. Globally, 2022 ranked as one of the hottest years on recorded, and the past eight years were collectively the hottest documented by modern science. Last month, more than 100 students were treated in hospital in Laguna, south-east of Manila, due to dehydration after taking part in a fire drill when temperatures were between 39C and 42C. Hundreds of schools have switched to distance learning to prevent students from falling ill, while one teacher’s group has called for shorter teaching times and smaller class sizes to ease conditions. In the Philippines, managing the heat is a particular challenge because the school calendar shifted during the pandemic, meaning students now spend the hottest months of the year in their classrooms. The hot weather has contributed to record electricity consumption in Thailand, with the country consuming more than 39,000 megawatts on 6 April – higher than the previous record of 32,000 megawatts in April last year. Rain on Wednesday in Bangkok brought respite from the heat, and the authorities have said they believe the hot season has now peaked. In some areas, water has been sprinkled from apartment or university buildings, to ease temperatures and air pollution caused by seasonal agricultural burning. Many still braved the sticky weather – sheltering under umbrellas and carrying fans to stay cool, or seeking respite in air-conditioned malls. Temperatures hit 42C in the capital on Saturday, and the heat index – meaning what the temperature feels like combined with humidity – reached 54C. In Thailand last weekend the authorities advised people in Bangkok and other areas of the country to stay home to avoid becoming ill. There had been “endless record heat in south-east Asia, with weeks of records falling every day,” said Herrera. On Wednesday, Bago, north-east of Yangon, reached 42.2C, matching an all-time record previously recorded in May 2020 and April 2019, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian. On Tuesday, four weather stations in Myanmar hit or matched record monthly temperatures, with Theinzayet, in eastern Mon state, reaching the highest, at 43C (109.4F).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |