NAWABSHAH: Nawabshah became the hottest city on Earth during April with the highest temperatures recorded anywhere on the planet for the month.
“On Monday, a city in the southern part of Pakistan soared to 122.4 degrees (50.2 Celsius). This might just be the highest temperature ever reliably measured on the planet during April,” The Washington Post reported on 1 May.
“A city in Pakistan may have just endured the hottest April temperature ever observed on Earth,” ran the headline.
“Pakistan Today reported that the demand for electricity had exceeded generation resulting in “unannounced outages” that exacerbated the heat’s effects due to a lack of air conditioning,” added the report.
The paper also blamed Climate Change over the increase in temperatures.
“As concentrations of heat-trapping gases continue to build in the atmosphere due to human activity, the expectation is for an increase in the intensity, frequency and duration of hot weather.”
Similarly, The Guardian reported on 2 May that “A Pakistani city has set a global record temperature for the month of April, with the mercury rising to more than 50C on Monday, prompting fears that people might leave to escape even higher temperatures when summer sets in.”
“Recent summers across the Middle East and south Asia have produced sweltering heat above 50C, melting roads, overwhelming power infrastructure and raising serious questions about the liveability of settlements from Iraq to India,” The Guardian added.
“Pakistan faces a greater threat from climate change than it does from terrorism, a 2016 Foreign Policy study found. The frequency of catastrophic floods and severe droughts has increased greatly since 2011, and its main economic city, Karachi, is especially vulnerable.”
