“It is 2:51 am right now. The night, which is supposed to be pleasant, seems to be having a fever. It is in a mood of uproar right now. The moon seems to be scared and the stars are drenched in sweat. Water is coming out of the tap as if the pipes have been connected to a boiling cauldron. The water falls on the body as if it will not stop until it scorches it. It seems as if the night has separated from its nature and has become a part of the afternoon. It seems as if the sun has kept the black hair of the night to light a lamp. The night is no longer a place of peace, it has become the village of some criminal. What has happened to this night and with whom is it angry!”
Wait a minute, these questioning lines are not part of any literary book, but the truth written by senior journalist Tribhuvan on 20 June, which is a live description of the hot nights i.e. ‘warm night’ in Delhi and other cities of the country. At least this has been the story in Delhi till 18 June. On this day, the highest minimum temperature (35.2 degrees Celsius) was recorded in the country’s capital after the year 1969. While the heat of the day is making people miserable in Delhi, now people do not get peace even at night. In such a situation, let us understand why people need to be worried about warm night?
In February-March this year, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had warned that this time there would be record-breaking heat. People started feeling its effects from April. In the Lok Sabha elections held in May-June, people cast their votes in the scorching heat. If we talk only about June, there are about ten days left for it to end. But so far seven heatwaves have been recorded in it. On top of that, the rising temperature at night is now inviting a new disaster.
Delhi has so far suffered six consecutive ‘worm nights’ in June. The tragedy of the situation can also be understood from the fact that after May 12, the temperature which rose during the day never came below 40 degrees at night. This changed only on June 19 when the weather showed some relief. But even then it remained above 32 degrees at night. If we talk about the period between 1969 and 2024, then the highest minimum temperature before this was recorded on May 23, 1972. That day it was recorded at 34.9 degrees. Now before moving ahead, let us know a little about ‘worm nights’.
According to the IMD, warm nights are those in which the minimum night temperature is 4.5 to 6.4 degrees Celsius higher than normal. When this difference is more than 6.4 degrees, it is considered a severely warm night. However, the pre-requisite for both conditions is that the temperature during the day should be 40 degrees or more.
On June 19, the minimum temperature in Delhi was 8 degrees above normal. While the maximum temperature was recorded at 43.6 degrees Celsius, which is 5 degrees above normal. Usually the average minimum temperature of the month of June is 27.5 degrees. Now a question arises here that why do people need to worry about this?
Talking to Indian Express, a doctor in the Delhi government said, “The temperature had reached its peak in the last week of May. Despite this, if more cases of heat stroke are being registered now, then the reason for this is the increase in night temperature. And there is no relief from this right now.”
He further explains, “Apart from this, houses are hotter at night than outside. During the day when it is very hot outside, people stay outside in the open. And at night when they have to stay inside the house, even then there is not much drop in the temperature.”
Although the IMD has not yet studied this extreme heat of June in detail, but publicly available data shows that this is the first time since 2011 that the country’s capital has recorded the highest minimum temperature days in June. There have been 12 days from 1 to 19 June when the minimum temperature has been more than 30 degrees. Earlier, 10 such days were recorded in 2018.
Many studies have revealed that ‘Urban Heat Island’ is a major reason for the increase in temperature in cities. Actually, this is a local phenomenon which is mainly seen in more urbanized areas. These areas have dense buildings while there are less green areas. In comparison, the temperature remains lower in cities which are relatively more open and green.
For example, take Delhi’s Ridge area and the green Lutyens’ Delhi. For the past several decades, lower maximum and minimum temperatures have been recorded here than the more urbanised pockets of Delhi. Studies show that due to the concretisation of these areas, heat gets trapped. And due to this, the temperature can change by 2 to 4 degrees within a few kilometres.