NEW DELHI: Extreme weather events caused over 3,200 deaths in the country in 2024 – the warmest year on record in India, with lightning and thunderstorms taking the highest number of lives (1,374) followed by floods and heavy rains (1,287) and heat wave (459), shows the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Annual Climate Summary – 2024, released on Wednesday.
Lightning and thunderstorms took the maximum number of lives in Bihar, whereas floods and heavy rains caused the maximum deaths in Kerala. Besides these two states, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra figured in list of top five reporting bigger numbers of casualties due to extreme weather events in 2024.
Though Met department revealed the annual temperature rise figure a fortnight ago, stating 2024 as the hottest year since nationwide records began in 1901, its annual climate summary for the year disclosed how the regional variation in warming made the mean temperature rise in certain states/regions above the national average (+0.65° C above the long-term average).
The IMD report shows that the mean temperature rise over parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, east Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, south interior Karnataka, north interior Karnataka, madhya Maharashtra, Odisha, Bihar, Rayalaseema and Kerala and Mahe was above normal by about one degree Celsius. It means these meteorological divisions/states reported higher temperature rise than the national average of annual warming last year.
In 2024, the country recorded above normal temperatures in all four seasons. Winter (Jan-Feb) was warmer by 0.37 degree Celsius, pre-monsoon season (March-May) by 0.56 degree Celsius; monsoon (June-Sept) by 0.71 degree Celsius and post-monsoon season (Oct-Dec) by 0.83 degree Celsius – the warmest last three months since 1901.
The summary report, released on the occasion of the 150th foundation day of IMD, also shows that many of meteorological stations had reported new records since 1901 in terms of both temperature and rainfall.
The stations/cities, which reported a new record in terms of hottest day include Churu (50.5 degrees Celsius), Ganganagar (49.4 degrees Celsius), Varanasi (47.8 degrees Celsius), Gaya (47.4 degrees Celsius) and Sultanpur (47 degrees Celsius).
In terms of rainfall, Porbandar (Gujarat) reported its new record of highest rains in a single day at 485.8 mm on July 19, followed by Puducherry at 483.7 mm on Dec 1 and Dwarka (Gujarat) at 418.6 mm on July 20.
The IMD’s averaged annual mean temperature data for the 1901-2024 period showed a significant increasing trend of 0.68 degree Celsius per 100 years in the country. During the same period, day (maximum) temperature rose by 0.89 degree Celsius per 100 years whereas the night (minimum) temperature showed an increase of 0.46 degree Celsius per 100 years.
