Delhi's Scorching Streets: When 43.5°C Feels Like a Sizzling 64°C!

Delhi, the capital of India, is experiencing a very intense heatwave. The official weather reports say the temperature is around 43. 5 degrees Celsius, but it feels much hotter when you are actually outside. This is because the temperature measured by weather stations is the air temperature, but the surfaces like roads, cars, and buildings can get much hotter. A group from Greenpeace India used a thermal camera to check the real surface temperatures in different parts of the city. They found that in some places, the ground was as hot as 64 degrees Celsius, which is much higher than the air temperature.

The difference between air temperature and surface temperature is important. On a hot day, things like concrete, metal, and asphalt absorb a lot of heat from the sun. When you stand on or near these surfaces, you feel much hotter because the heat is coming up from the ground as well as down from the sun. For example, at a busy traffic crossing in south Delhi, the temperature under the shade of a flyover was 42 degrees, but in the sun, it shot up to 64 degrees. Just moving a few feet into the shade of a tree made a big difference.

Nibedita Saha, a researcher with Greenpeace, explained that being exposed to such high temperatures for a long time can be dangerous. The human body is supposed to stay at about 37 degrees Celsius. If your body gets too hot, you can get heat exhaustion, which makes you feel very tired, sweaty, and gives you headaches. In serious cases, people can get confused, faint, or even have seizures. Doctors say it is important to drink water, wear light clothes, and stay out of the sun as much as possible.

However, many people in Delhi do not have the choice to stay indoors. Street vendors, like Sanjana Ben who sells dry fruits, have to sit outside all day to earn money. The thermal camera showed that the ground where she sits can get up to 57 degrees. She said sometimes she feels dizzy and her vision gets blurry because of the heat. Another vendor, Mohammad Mahfouz Alam, sells shoes and said he feels tired all the time and cannot sleep well at night because even the air from the fan is hot.

The weather in Delhi has changed over the years. People say the seasons are not as predictable as before, and the heat affects people who work outside the most. Trees provide some relief, but there are not enough of them. In crowded neighborhoods like Sundar Nagri, homes are small and close together, and it is just as hot inside as outside. Siblings Abhishek and Kajal keep a diary about how the heat affects their lives. They say it is hard to sleep, and their mother is more tired than ever. Even with fans and water, it is difficult to stay cool.

Doctors and experts say the government should help by giving advice to workers and making sure there are more trees and shaded areas in the city. Until then, people in Delhi will have to find their own ways to survive the heat.