India and Pakistan's Heat Wave in Photos | The Weather Channel
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Photos

Tropical Cyclone Asani will bring little relief.

ByNicole BonaccorsoMay 11, 2022

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Cool cool themselves in water leaking from a pipe on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Wednesday, May 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Hundreds of millions of people have suffered through a deadly heat wave for nearly two months.

The heat wave began sorching India and Pakistan in mid-March. The area's hottest months are usually May and June.

According to PBS.org, it was the hottest March and April in India in 122 years, with temperatures regularly topping 100 degrees in most parts of the country. New Delhi hit temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit for several days in April. Temperatures in Jacobabad and Nawabshah in Pakistan soared as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit at the end of the month.

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At least 25 people have been killed by the temperatures in India, and 65 deaths have been reported in Pakistan, though CBS News reported that the true numbers are expected to be higher.

"It's unique for three reasons: It arrived very early, covered a massive area in the two countries and stayed on for long duration … this is very unusual," Vimal Mishra, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, told CBS News of the heat wave.

While only 1 in 10 households in India have air conditioning, the demand for electricity to power them has caused rolling blackouts throughout the country. The heat is also having a devastating effect on agriculture, especially this year's wheat harvest.

Parts of eastern India are experiencing torrential rain from Tropical Cyclone Asani, but the country's heat wave is expected to continue, and temperatures are expected to rise up to 5 degrees Fahrenheit during the next few days, according to the India Meteorological Department.

Weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Belles said that the cyclone impacted the heat in three ways.

"Firstly, it put a dent into the heat in the immediate area where Asani was making landfall by bringing rain and more humid air ashore," Belles explained. "Secondly, it did likely also enhance the heatwave over western and northern India through subsidence, or sinking air."

Tropical systems cause air to rise inside themselves, but instead of rising into space, the air spreads out and eventually sinks back toward the ground.

"This air sunk, in this case, over other parts of India while warming or compressing as the air sunk. This second impact will lessen as the cyclone weakens in the next few days," said Belles. "Thirdly, the cyclone nudges the high pressure area which has kept southern Asia warm over the last month or so slightly toward the north and west. This ridge is strong and thus is more of a game of chess rather than bumper cars, but this game of chess will keep places like Pakistan and western India warmer. The cyclone also assists this pattern in keeping the jet stream, and any heat relief, away."

Click through the slideshow above to see how people are dealing with the dangerous weather.

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