Citation

Sarath Chandran MA, Subba Rao AV, Sandeep VM, Pramod VP, Pani P, Rao VU, Visha Kumari V, Srinivasa Rao C. Int. J. Biometeorol. 2016; 61(6): 1063-1072.

Affiliation

ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), Santoshnagar, Hyderabad, 500059, India.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, International Society of Biometeorology, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00484-016-1286-9

PMID

27933447

Abstract

Heat wave is a hazardous weather-related extreme event that affects living beings. The 2015 summer heat wave affected many regions in India and caused the death of 2248 people across the country. An attempt has been made to quantify the intensity and duration of heat wave that resulted in high mortality across the country. Half hourly Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET), based on a complete heat budget of human body, was estimated using automatic weather station (AWS) data of four locations in Andhra Pradesh state, where the maximum number of deaths was reported. The heat wave characterization using PET revealed that extreme heat load conditions (PET >41) existed in all the four locations throughout May during 2012-2015, with varying intensity. The intensity and duration of heat waves characterized by "area under the curve" method showed good results for Srikakulam and Undi locations. Variations in PET during each half an hour were estimated. Such studies will help in fixing thresholds for defining heat waves, designing early warning systems, etc.

Language: en