The continuously rising temperatures have also put the wheat harvest at risk.
An extreme spring heatwave is bringing scorching heat to parts of Pakistan and India with record-breaking April temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit forecast along the border of the two neighboring countries in the next days.
With the arrival of April, temperatures in India and Pakistan have abnormally increased and continue to do so because of a series of strong and prolonged heatwaves for the second month in a row.
This week, temperatures are rising to dangerously high levels with more than 110 degrees in the Indian capital of Delhi on Thursday while the city of Nawabshah in Pakistan hit 117.5 degrees (47.5 degrees Celsius) which is the hottest temperature recorded in the Northern Hemisphere so far this year.
Most areas of both India and Pakistan spent Thursday scorching under temperatures ranging between 104 to 113 degrees (40 and 45 Celsius). Between the two countries, nearly 1 billion people roasted under these extraordinary temperatures.
Wheat harvest
The continuously rising temperatures have also put the wheat harvest at risk.
“The heat spell occurred very fast and also matured the crop at a faster pace, which shriveled the grain size. This also resulted in a drop in yield,” JDS Gill, the agriculture information officer in the state of Punjab, told India Today.
Weekend heat alert
The Meteorological departments in both countries have placed the citizens under an extreme heat alert throughout the weekend.
Such severe heat waves aren’t normally registered in the region until May and June, but scientists have long warned that because of climate change they will become more common earlier and later in the coming decades.
Glaciers melting
The formation of a heat dome over India, Nepal and the Himalayas also has strongly worrisome long-term consequences, according to climate researchers. According to scientists, climate change has sped up the melting of glacier ice in the Himalayas, which could result in early flooding in the planes.