HYDERABAD: Heat waves have become common in summer while cold waves have become less common in winter in the recent decade in India, finds a study conducted by the faculty of the University of Hyderabad which was published in the recent issue of the Journal of Earth System Science.
The authors found that heat waves are increasing at the rate of 0.6 events per decade whereas cold wave events are decreasing at the rate of 0.4 events per decade.
The study was led by Aninda Bhattacharya, Dr Abin Thomas, and Dr Vijay Kanawade from the Centre of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Physics at the UoH, in collaboration with Prof Chandan Sarangi from IIT Madras, Dr P S Roy from World Resources Institute and Dr Vijay K Soni from India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences.
The study analysed daily maximum and minimum temperature data from 1970 to 2019 to investigate the trend in the frequency of occurrence of days with anomalously high and low temperatures.
Four different climatic zones of the country including montane where the climate is harsher with lower temperatures in mountainous regions, subtropical humid climate, arid and semi-arid climate, and dry and wet tropical climate.
It was found that days with anomalously higher temperatures are increasing during summer every year while the days with anomalously lower temperatures are decreasing during winter every year. The authors pointed out opposite trends in heat waves and cold waves.