BANGKOK – A heatwave is battering swathes of Asia, from Myanmar to the Philippines, breaking temperature records and forcing millions of children to stay home from school.
Record temperatures have caused a sweltering heatwave in India, raising concerns about turnout in the country’s long-running elections, while extreme heat in Bangladesh has also led to schools being closed across the country.
Extremely high temperatures were also recorded in Myanmar and Thailand, while large swaths of the Philippines are in drought.
Experts say climate change is making heat waves more frequent, longer and more intense, and the El Nino weather phenomenon is also responsible for this year’s unusually warm weather.
In India, turnout figures for the second phase of a seven-phase general election after polls closed on April 26 showed it was around 61% – lower than the 65% turnout in the first phase and the 68% turnout in the second phase five years ago.
Among the states that voted last week was the southern state of Kerala, where at least two people – a 90-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man – were reported to have died of suspected heatstroke on April 29. Temperatures in Kerala rose to 41.9°C, nearly 5.5°C above normal. At least two people have also died in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, where temperatures reached 44.9°C on April 28, the hottest April day on record.
In neighbouring Bangladesh, students will continue to stay at home this week after schools across the country were ordered closed on April 29. A two-judge bench of the country’s High Court passed an order ordering all primary and secondary schools and madrasas (Islamic schools) across the country to remain closed until May 5, affecting an estimated 32 million students.
A week-long nationwide school closure that began on April 21 was lifted, with classes resuming on April 28, the day before. Bangladesh observes the Muslim week, with working days from Sunday to Thursday.
In the capital Dhaka, maximum temperatures are expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius until May 2. The average temperature in Dhaka over the past week has been 4 to 5 degrees Celsius higher than the 30-year average for the same period.
According to the Myanmar Meteorological Department, the temperature reached 48.2 degrees Celsius in Kyauk town in the central Magway Region on April 28, the highest April temperature in Myanmar since records began in 1956.
Temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius in the commercial capital Yangon and 44 degrees Celsius in the second city Mandalay on that day, according to the Meteorological Department.
In the Philippines, temperatures have risen to nearly 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the archipelago in recent days, and the heat index, which measures the perceived temperature and takes into account humidity, reached 53 degrees in one area.
