People Don't Know, 'May' Is Getting Hot! WMD Predicts Extremely High Temp Next Month In Indo-Pacific Region

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) predicted an extremely high temperature for May 2024, stating that the month will be hotter-than-usual, with temperatures expected to soar in the coming months. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has also cautioned against an abnormally hot summer this year, with temperatures likely to be above normal across most parts of the country between April and June. However, some parts of northwest India, such as Jammu and Kashmir, and some parts of northeast India, may experience normal to below-normal maximum temperatures.

The warning from the IMD and WMD follows a trend of increasing global temperatures. The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation has warned that 2024 is expected to be even hotter than the record-breaking last year.

The year 2023 witnessed the hottest temperatures ever recorded, with heat records being broken across Asia and the world. In India, February 2023 was the hottest on record since 1901, according to the IMD. This was followed by a severe heat wave in April 2023, with climate scientists attributing the extreme temperatures to human-induced climate change. The trend continued into June, which became the hottest June that south peninsular India had ever witnessed.

July brought more records, with July 3 being declared the world’s hottest day ever recorded. NASA’s top scientists warned that the heat was likely to continue, with July on track to be the warmest month on record in “hundreds, if not thousands, of years”. The WMO reported that the first three weeks of July were the warmest ever recorded.

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed in October 2023 that the year was set to become the hottest ever recorded, with September being the warmest ever on record. December 2023 also broke records, being the warmest December on record globally.

Several agencies and organisations have reiterated these findings, with the IMD stating that 2023 was the second warmest year for India since 1901. The WMO has confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded since climate records began in 1850.

The shift from La Niña to El Niño conditions in mid-2023 contributed to the rapid rise in temperature from 2022 to 2023, according to the WMO. The onset of the monsoon over Kerala, India, occurred later than normal, and by the end of September, India had received 94% of its typical monsoon rainfall.