Hottest day in Guwahati since 1960, Assam gets its first heatwave alert in recent years

Not just Guwahati, all 18 Met stations – except Imphal – in the region experienced maximum temperatures more than 3 degrees above the normal on Saturday. Nine of these stations – across Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya – experienced maximum temperatures more than 7 degrees above normal. In the Pasighat station in Arunachal Pradesh, which recorded a temperature of 39.4 degrees Celsius, it was a drastic 9.4 degrees Celsius higher than normal.

“On May 24, some stations such as Silchar, Guwahati and Lumding clocked maximum temperatures closed to and above 40 degrees and we were expecting the same trend to continue today as well, which is why we issued a heatwave warning, especially for the plain areas of the state – in the Brahmaputra Valley and the Barak Valley. This is the first time we have done it in recent memory… Our normal temperatures are not as high as some other parts of the country. The normal temperature around this time in the plain areas is around 33 degrees Celsius,” said a scientist at RMC.

Responding to the blistering heat conditions, coupled with high humidity in the region, the Assam education department directed district administrators to change school timings to as early in the day as possible and the governments of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh issued health advisories.

These heat conditions are predicted to end on Sunday with Cyclone Remal expected to make landfall in West Bengal and Bangladesh, which the IMD has predicted will bring rainfall to the northeastern states from May 26 to 28.

Noting the extreme departures from normal temperatures, another scientist at RMC said, “In the northeastern region, we are suddenly seeing that temperature recordings are higher everywhere. I would say we all know the reason. The region is badly affected by deforestation.”

According to reported data from the Global Forest Watch — an open-source application which tracks forest changes in near real-time using satellite data and other sources, established by US non-profit World Resources Institute — based on which the National Green Tribunal sought the Centre’s response earlier this week, India lost 2.33 million hectares of tree cover since 2000. Five northeastern states — Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur — account for 60% of the tree cover loss.

Rahul Mahanta, director of Interdisciplinary Climate Research Centre in Assam’s Cotton University, argued against the current heat conditions being a general trend. “The brewing cyclone is contributing to the heat, as well as the El Nino conditions active in the Pacific, which has been affecting climate conditions for the last seven months. So I think this is a blip and things may go back to normal in the next two years,” he said.

However, he also pointed to deforestation and scant pre-monsoon showers as contributing to the departures from the normal in the northeastern region.

“We have rampant deforestation happening here… Overall, in this period, we would get showers… 30% of the annual rainfall in this region is recorded during pre-monsoon. There have been less showers this time,” he said.

According to the IMD data, between May 15 and May 22, the Arunachal Pradesh sub-division recorded a rainfall deficit of 58%, the Assam and Meghalaya sub-division of 46% and the Nagaland Manipur Mizoram and Tripura sub-division of 77%.