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The Hindustan Times reports:
An unrelenting heat wave has killed more than 1,100 people across the country over a fortnight with southern neighbours Andhra Pradesh and Telangana bearing the brunt, as torrid temperatures melted roads in the national capital and have forced people indoors.
Authorities said on [May 26] most of the victims were construction workers, the elderly, or the homeless, as the weather office predicted the mercury will continue to soar this week with substantial relief expected only when the southwest monsoon hits the Indian mainland around May 31.
[...] The meteorological department issued "red box" warnings for Odisha, Jharkhand, and coastal Andhra Pradesh, signalling high chances of heatstroke, dehydration, and fatality with temperatures inching upwards of 45°C and conditions worsened by constant dry, sweltering winds.
[The state of] Odisha continued to reel, with [the town of] Titlagarh in Balangir district clocking the highest temperature of 47.6°C [117.7°F], while authorities said they received reports of 67 deaths in the past week.
[...] Experts warned [that] no let-up in the heat wave would lead to large-scale power outages in several parts of north India, bringing back memories of a horrific blackout in 2012 that affected nearly 600 million people.
In a separate story, Arne Winguth, Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas-Arlington led a study on future environmental conditions in central Texas in the year 2100.
The professor was interviewed by KERA TV:
Winguth's study predicts more cracks and potholes, even buckling and melting of roadways in extreme 125-degree heat.
"The 125° Fahrenheit is a prediction for the future that is predicted for the year 2100. That would be the extreme temperature--that is based on most recent climate assimilation from the National Center for Atmospheric research."
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
(Score: 5, Informative) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Thursday May 28 2015, @02:54PM
I don't want to belittle even one death, but how many people normally die during a two week span in India? How much of an increase in deaths is the 1100? How do we put this death toll in perspective if we don't know how much worse it is than usual? How does heat death compare to other forms of death? The media is not helping us by giving a number with no context to understand it.
I found: Deaths of "22,500 per day approximately" from http://www.quora.com/How-many-people-die-in-India-every-day [quora.com]
And: http://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_people_die_in_India_every_day [answers.com]
And this is interesting: 1326 Indians die due to accidents, suicide every day
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/1326-Indians-die-due-to-accidents-suicide-every-day/articleshow/7300325.cms [indiatimes.com]
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @03:16PM
Now that has to get a +5 Informative
Mod system here is ... *sigh*
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @03:36PM
Of course the interesting quantity is not just the number of deaths. For example, if 90% of the regular deaths are people dying of old age, but the majority of heat-related deaths is young people dying, it is still significant. OTOH, if those who die from heat are all terminally ill and would have died a few weeks later anyway, it's less of an issue.
A more informative number would be the impact on life expectancy.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday May 28 2015, @04:08PM
I remember the argument happening a few years ago, when Europeans were trying to figure out how many people had died there.
The end result is that you will know a good approximation number of dead people, by the end of the year. The immediate bodies can be counted, but the older people croaking a bit earlier than they would have is a statistical thing which requires comparing to long-term trends. You can't provide that on the spot.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @03:56PM
Since there are 1236 million people in India, we can deduce that their average lifetime with that mortality is about 150 years.