Monthly records topple in 7 countries

Heat wave roasts parts of Asia, as monthly records topple in 7 countries

Mashable,

4 April, 2018

It may be unusually cold in the eastern U.S. right now, but in parts of Asia, dangerous, scorching heat has been breaking records.

At least seven countries set monthly high temperature records at the end of March, according to national weather authorities and tracking by Etienne Kapikian, a meteorologist with MeteoFrance, along with climatologist Maximiliano Herrera.

According to the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang blog, the worst of the heat was parked on top of Pakistan, which saw its hottest weather for so early in the season. On March 30, the temperature in Nawabshah, in Sindh Province, hit 45.5 degrees Celsius, or 113.9 degrees Fahrenheit. This beat the old monthly record of 45 degrees Celsius, or 113 degrees Fahrenheit, which was set in March of 1991.

Moenjo Daro, southwest of Nawabshah, also saw a temperature of 45.5 degrees Celsius the next day. That is noteworthy since that community holds the all-time high temperature record for the country, of 128.3 degrees Fahrenheit, set in 2010.

Iraq also experienced record heat in late March, with the temperature in Nasiriyah soaring to 43.8 degrees Celsius, or 110.8 degrees Fahrenheit, on March 29. This beat the old record of 42.4 degrees Celsius, or 108.3 degrees Fahrenheit, in 2010. Nasiriyah is located in southeastern Iraq, to the northwest of Basra.

Qatar also likely set a monthly temperature record on March 30, when the temperature soared to 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, at Abu Samrah, about 55 miles from Doha. This beat the old monthly high temperature record of 39 degrees Celsius, or 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit, which was set at the international airport near Doha, in 1998.

Etienne Kapikian@EKMeteo

Episode de #chaleur précoce exceptionnel en #Asie cette fin mars 2018
Au moins 7 pays ont battu leur record mensuel national (voire 9 ou 10 pays), en 1re ligne le #Pakistan avec 45.5°C les 30-31/03 ou l'#Irak avec 43.8°C le 29/03, du jamais vu aussi tôt dans la saison ! #climat

9:59 AM - Apr 2, 2018

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Other monthly records also appear to have fallen in Turkmenistan (40.2 degrees Celsius, or 104.4 degrees Fahrenheit), Uzbekistan (37.2 degrees Celsius, or 99 degrees Fahrenheit), Tajikistan (35.2 degrees Celsius, or 95.5 degrees Fahrenheit), and the United Arab Emirates (43.1 degrees Celsius, or 109.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

None of these records have been verified by an official international organization, since the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) does not investigate and confirm monthly records. However, the reports come from each country's meteorological agency and are corroborated by other weather data which showed an extraordinarily warm air mass in place across the Middle East and South Asia in late March.

Such extreme heat is more typical of April or May than March, even for some of these regions known for their heat.

These types of heat events are expected to become more frequent and severe as the world continues to warm due to human emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels. As the overall climate gets warmer, it becomes easier to set warm temperature extremes, even in months that didn't used to see such hot and potentially deadly weather.