India Battles Heatwave; ‘Heat Dome’ Covers UK, France, Spain | Vantage on Firstpost | 4K

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]In India, temperatures are soaring across the northern plains. Millions are enduring one of the toughest summer stretches in recent years. Daytime temperatures across cities have gone past the 45° C mark. In the capital, New Delhi, temperature today touched 43° C.

[00:00:17]Lucknau touched a similar level.

[00:00:20]Rajasthan has recorded temperatures of 48.3° this season with daily highs consistently above 40. Temperature in Mumbai is not that high but the intense humidity is adding to the W. It's the same story with Chennai and Kolkata.

[00:00:37]Even the nights become hot and humid and daily life has come to a crawl.

[00:00:44]Markets empty in the afternoon. Outdoor workers struggle and power demand has shot up. Water scarcity has steamed up with the unforgiving summer heat. In several Indian states, residents are struggling with water supplies with children risking their lives to fetch water from deep pits. This is daily life in northern India right now. The extreme heat is being pushed in by northwesterly winds. Hot dry air blowing in from deserts of Rajasthan and neighboring Pakistan. So what are Indians doing?

[00:01:18]Running to the hills in Himachal Pradesh's Manali. The sudden rush of tourists has led to hour-long traffic jams. The situation is same in Masuri and theirun in neighboring Uttarakand.

[00:01:49]Since 1961, heatwave frequency in India has been rising by about 1/10enth of a day every decade.

[00:01:56]Doesn't sound like much, right? But stack that over six decades and the trend is unmistakable. Nighttime temperatures are climbing at 21° C per decade. India has 28 states and eight union territories. Regions under direct control of the central government. 35 out of 36 Indian states in union territories are getting hotter at night.

[00:02:19]And then there's humidity. Between 2015 and 2019, India's average humidity was 67%. Fast forward to 2020 to 2024 and it has jumped to 71%. So why does that matter? Because humidity is what breaks your body's cooling system. When the air is already saturated with moisture, your sweat doesn't evaporate. You cannot cool down. The health risk becomes severe.

[00:02:45]Even when the temperature alone doesn't look record-breaking on paper. So, what's behind all of this? Let's start with El Nino. The Spanish term for little boy. It's a weather phenomenon.

[00:02:56]Let me break it down for you. Normally, strong winds push warm ocean water towards Australia and Indonesia. Cold water rises near South America.

[00:03:06]Everything is in balance. During El Nino, those winds weaken. Warm water drifts east towards Peru. Some regions get floods, others get droughts. India often gets heat. That's one factor. The other, we've been warning this planet, warming this planet, pardon me, for over a century, burning fossil fuels, clearing forests, building cities that of concrete that absorb heat like sponges.

[00:03:33]It is called the urban heat island effect and that is turning up the baseline temperature across cities. Even ordinary summers now feel extraordinary.

[00:03:43]If you think this is just an Indian story, look west. There's no escape in Europe as well. A heat dome has locked itself over France, Spain, Britain, and Italy. Imagine a giant lid placed over a pot. Hot air from North Africa drifts north into Europe. A high pressure system sits on top of it like that lid and pushes the air down instead of letting it rise and escape. The heat gets trapped. Cloud formation is reduced. More sunlight reaches the ground and the result is prolonged extreme heatwave conditions. Britain recorded its hottest Mayday ever. Today, France reported at least seven deaths linked to the heat. Italy has restricted outdoor work. Europe is in fact the fastest warming continent on Earth since 1990.

[00:04:32]Every generation has faced summers, ones that felt unbearable. But those generations could always say next year will be better. We can no longer say that with the same confidence because the data is telling us something we don't want to hear. The summers are not passing, they're staying. Heatwave days in India are projected to rise by 12 to 18 more days. And somewhere in a city, you know, an outdoor worker is deciding between his wages and his life because he cannot not go to work.

[00:05:23]Meanwhile, the rest of us turn up the AC, complain about the electricity bill, and scroll past the headlines. This is the world we are building brick by brick, degree by degree, and literally setting our planet on fire, one long summer at a time.

[00:05:42]Heat.

[00:05:56]Heat.

[00:06:16]The world moves fast. Power shifts.

[00:06:20]Unexpected developments. Changing alliances. Every day brings a new headline. But headlines are only the beginning. Because behind every story, there is context. There are consequences and there are questions worth asking.

[00:06:40]Find the answers. Understand the story.

[00:06:43]Take on the world.

[00:06:45]This is hima for first post Vantage.