Heatwave Kills 21 in Egypt

At least 21 people have died and 66 others suffered exhaustion in Egypt due to a severe heatwave that is sweeping across the Arab country.

Fifteen people have died in the capital Cairo, four in Matrouh city and two in the Upper Egyptian city of Qena, the ministry of health said in a statement on Sunday.

The temperature reached 39 degrees Celsius in Cairo and 45 degrees Celsius in the Upper Egypt governorates on Saturday, according to the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA).

The people have been advised to keep away from the direct sunlight.

The heat wave is expected to continue until August 25.

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Heat Wave in Poland Causing Electricity Shortage, Drought

A heat wave in Poland on Monday forced the national supplier to cut electricity to factories for several hours, and Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz appealed to people to save energy during the day.

Temperatures reached 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) over the weekend and there has been almost no rainfall, leading to a drought in agriculture. The levels of the Vistula and several other rivers have fallen dramatically, disrupting navigation in Warsaw and elsewhere.

“The situation resulting from the heat wave is serious and we have bad forecasts for the next 10 or 11 days,” Kopacz said, following a meeting she convened with the government crisis management team.

She appealed to people not to use energy between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., if possible, but promised there will be no power cuts to individual clients or to hospitals.

Some dams are to increase the water flow to help cool overheating power plants, Kopacz said.

The highest temperature measured in recent days was 38 Celsius in the western Polish city of Wroclaw and elsewhere in the area.

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‘Incredible’ Heat Dome In Middle East Lifts ‘Feels-Like’ Temperatures To 74 Degrees

If you’re grumbling about the extended cold across southern Australia this winter, spare a thought for people in the Middle East who are sweltering through heat that’s rarely been recorded before.

While it might be snowing in Hobart and Melbourne might be expecting a top of just 11 degrees on Monday, Iraq was forced to declare a four-day holiday from last Thursday to help residents cope with extreme conditions as a heat dome set in over the region.

The Iranian port city of Bandar-e Mahshahr recorded an apparent temperature of as much as 74 degrees on Friday. That remarkable reading came from a heat index that is calculated according to a formula that combines the air temperature – 46 degrees at its peak – with the top humidity or dew-point temperature reached of 32 degrees.

Dew point levels above 26 degrees are considered oppressive as the body struggles to lose heat through perspiration.
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“That was one of the most incredible temperature observations I have ever seen, and it is one of the most extreme readings ever in the world,” AccuWeather meteorologist Anthony Sagliani said in a statement.

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Pakistan Heat Wave: Death Toll Passes 700 in Karachi, Sindh Province

The death toll soared to 748 people in Pakistan’s heat wave after authorities began counting deaths in the province surrounding Karachi, officials said Wednesday local time.

Authorities earlier reported 323 deaths in only Karachi in the three-day heat disaster.

But more deaths were reported by officials in the Sindh Province, said National Disaster Management Authority spokesman Ahmed Kamal.

Officials also told CNN that the number of patients treated for heat stroke in Jinnah hospital, the largest in the Karachi, is 2,360. Karachi, a seaside city, is Pakistan’s largest.

At least one city morgue, CNN affiliate Geo.tv has reported, has been overwhelmed with the numbers of dead.

Death tolls in local media reports vary.

The Sindh provincial government has declared a state of emergency in all its government hospitals, canceling leave of medical personnel and bringing in further medical supplies.

The record-breaking temperatures would likely bring more deaths before cooler weather, forecast for later in the week, arrive.

Saturday’s temperature reached 44.8 degrees Celsius (112.64 degrees Fahrenheit) — the highest-recorded temperature in Pakistan in the past 15 years.

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India’s Hellish Heat Wave, In Hindsight

Heat is a silent killer — some studies say it is the biggest cause of weather-related deaths — and the devastating heat wave that scorched India is one of the more tragic and perhaps under-appreciated stories of the spring.

The late May siege of blistering temperatures is being blamed for 2,500 deaths, the second-deadliest heat wave on record in India and fifth-deadliest in world history, according to Jeff Masters at Weather Underground, who examined weather mortality databases.

Temperatures averaged nearly 10 degrees (5.5 Celsius) above average for nearly two weeks, NASA noted.

In New Delhi, temperatures surged to 113 degrees, so hot they melted roads. At Titlagarh in Odisha, the mercury spiked to a searing 117 degrees, just 5 degrees below India’s hottest temperature ever recorded, reported Slate’s Eric Holthaus.

Coastal areas dealt with the double whammy of extreme heat and oppressive levels of humidity. At the height of the heat wave in Mumbai, the heat index — what the air feels like given the combination of heat and humidity — struggled to fall below 100 even at night, Holthaus reported.

“On May 23 at 14:30,  Bhubneshwar [near the northeast coast of India] recorded a temperature of 42.2°C (108°F) with a dew point of 29.3°C (84.7°F), giving an astonishing heat index of 62°C (143.6°F.),” wrote Weather Underground’s Masters.

And the heat was relentless. “The city of Ongole, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, high temperatures averaged 110°F (43.47°C) from May 24-30,”wrote Tom Di Liberto for NOAA’s Climate.gov.

Day after day and night after night of such punishing conditions caused heat stress on the human body to accumulate, hitting vulnerable groups, such as older adults, the homeless and outdoor workers, the hardest. In India, many people do not have access to air-conditioning.

Climate experts blamed a surge of hot, dry winds from Pakistan, a “heat bomb,” for the severity of the heat which overwhelmed a cooler, moister pre-monsoon flow of air from the Bay of Bengal. The push of cooler air from the Bay of Bengal might have resisted the heat bomb sooner had the Indian monsoon not been delayed this year.

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