Extreme heat over 110°F in India and Pakistan continues to shatter records, threaten human health, cause landfills to combust, threaten power outages, and imperil Indian wheat crops struggling to make up for shortfalls caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Why is it exceptionally warm this year? The only reason is global warming,” Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, told Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, in the southwestern U.S., wildfires are ripping across drought-dried landscapes, especially in New Mexico. A million acres across the U.S. have burned already this year as, “Climate change is taking a situation that would be bad for us normally,” University of Arizona climatologist Gregg Garffin told The Guardian, “and turning the dial up.” (India/Pakistan: (Axios, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters, Climate Home; Wheat crop and landfills: AP; Power outage worries: FT; Southwest: The Guardian, The Hill, New York Times; New Mexico: AP, Reuters, ABC, Reuters, New York Times, Washington Post; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves, Wildfires, Western US megadrought)