Bathinda: Ludhiana’s annual average of dangerous humid heat days climbed from 99 in 1970–79 decade to 122 days during 2016–25. Climate change was directly responsible for adding 31 of those days, representing a quarter of the total dangerous humid heat days recorded in the city during the recent decade.These details came to the fore in a report published by Climate Central, an orgnisation which analyses and reports on climate science. It evaluated annual average dangerous humid heat days in 961 cities across the world, with two Punjab cities and one from Haryana figuring in it. Amritsar’s annual dangerous days rose from 101 to 119 days over the same period. Human-caused warming added 29 days to Amritsar’s tally, accounting for 24% of its total humid heat days. Faridabad in Haryana also saw a sharp increase, jumping from 95 to 133 days, with 37 days added by climate change. Nationally, India’s annual average dangerous days rose from 101 to 141, with climate change contributing 49 days, according to the report. Globally, dangerous humid heat days have more than doubled since the 1970s, surging from an average of 10 to 23 days per year. The study tracks wet-bulb temperature, a metric combining heat and humidity to measure physical stress on the human body, defining conditions as “dangerous” at 25°C (77°F) or higher.
