[0:01]Large parts of India are getting baked under intense heat waves. Across North India, roads are empty by afternoon. Air conditioners are like, are wheezing like exhausted marathon runners.
[0:12]And even the wind feels like someone opened a giant oven door. In parts of Uttar Pradesh, temperatures have hit 48° C. Delhi is racing towards 46. Punjab and Haryana are crossing 46 too.
[0:26]In Southern India, Hyderabad and Chennai saw daytime peaks in the mid to high 30s. Coastal Mumbai remained relatively cooler in the high 30s, but humid. And Kolkata reported high 30s temperatures.
[0:41]On 19th of May, all of the world's 100 hottest cities were located in India. The India Met Department has issued a clear warning. Severe heat wave conditions will continue across northwest India, Central India, and East India.
[0:56]The only people catching a break, those in the hills, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, where isolated showers are providing some relief.
[1:05]You must assume this is just summer. This is how it is supposed to be. It has always been this hot in India. Just move on, brave the heat. But let me draw a contrast.
[1:14]In many European countries, temperatures in the mid-30s are enough to disrupt daily life. But here in India, similar or higher temperatures are often treated as routine summer.
[1:25]Yes, April and May are always warm, solar radiation is at its peak. Intense summer sunlight heats the land surface rapidly.
[1:33]Hot air rises from the surface, creates a low-pressure area. Over Rajasthan and adjacent regions of Pakistan.
[1:40]Air from the upper atmosphere causes sinking air, meanwhile, meaning that air moves downwards towards the ground. This prevents cloud formation.
[1:50]It reduces cooling. The result, extreme heat and heat wave conditions, so much so that it has disrupted daily lives across states.
[2:01]It is very hot over here. The temperature is too high. I have covered my child with the cloth. The sunlight is extremely harsh. We are drinking water, cold drinks to cope.
[2:10]That's seasonal. That's normal. But why is dry, but what's driving this heat is not normal. And the implications are even worse.
[2:18]Prolonged exposure to heatwaves can cause a heat stroke. It's a medical emergency that stops your body from cooling down. It can also cause dehydration and increased risk of death.
[2:30]India's average temperature is increased by about 0.7°C between 1901 and 2018. This is the latest available comprehensive data.
[2:40]There's a global force at play here, and it has a name, El Nino. It is a Spanish phrase meaning little boy.
[2:49]But don't let that name fool you. This is one of the most powerful weather systems on Earth. Here's how it works. Under normal patterns, cold water rises from the East Pacific Ocean.
[3:00]Trade winds, the winds that blow towards the equator, they follow East to West direction. In the Western Pacific Ocean, warm water gets collected, causing rain.
[3:10]But during El Nino, the central and eastern Pacific Ocean becomes unusually warm. Trade winds weaken or even reverse. Warm water shifts back towards South America.
[3:22]Weakening the rain pressure near the Indian subcontinent. It's counterpart, La Nina or little girl, does the opposite, bringing cooler and wetter conditions.
[3:35]For India, the implications are serious. El Nino tends to push warmer Pacific waters east and south, which means Asia gets drier, which means India's southwest monsoon could arrive late, perform poorly, or both.
[3:48]Remember 2024, the hottest year ever recorded in human history. El Nino was the engine behind it. The same engine is warming up again.
[3:57]But when you have when you think of heatwaves, you imagine a burning sun and hazy streets. You think of humans devoid afternoon streets. But scientists are now increasingly worried about something else entirely.
[4:11]What happens at night? You know your body is remarkable. It can take a beating during the day, heat, exertion, stress, as long as it gets to recover at night.
[4:22]Cooler temperatures allow your core body temperature to drop. Your heart rate slows, your organs rest. You wake up the next morning, ready to do it all over again.
[4:32]But what if the night never cools down? A new study tracked temperatures inside 50 low and middle-income homes in Chennai. The findings were alarming.
[4:42]People were regularly sleeping in temperatures above 32°C, sometimes even above 35. Temperatures that match peak daytime heat in many cities.
[4:54]So why is this happening? Think about what our cities have become over the last three decades. We have replaced trees with towers. We've replaced ponds with parking lots. We've paved over everything that once absorbed or reflected heat.
[5:07]And replaced it with concrete, steel, glass, asphalt, materials that don't just absorb the sun's heat. They store it and radiate it right back at night.
[5:20]The result is what scientists call the urban heat island effect, where cities run up to 10 degrees hotter than the rural land surrounding them.
[5:30]Compound that with below average pre-monsoon rainfall this year. Clear skies with no cloud cover and stalled atmospheric circulation, meaning the cool, moist air from the ocean simply can't penetrate in land.
[5:43]And then there's the quiet multiplier underneath all of this, climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are steadily rising baseline temperatures year after year, which means heat waves don't need exceptional conditions to form anymore.
[5:58]On top of that, there are air conditioners. Every AC unit pumps hot air onto the street. In dense urban neighborhoods, that adds up. The streets get hotter.
[6:09]The next building heats up faster, and the families who can't afford an AC pay the price for everyone else's cooling. Night-time temperatures in Indian cities are rising faster than daytime temperatures.
[6:21]And we've barely begun to study what that means for public health. India in the summer of 2026 is caught in a perfect storm.
[6:29]Urban heat islands cooking cities from within, a weakened atmosphere that can't bring in relief, El Nino threatening to steal the monsoon, and nights that offer no escape.
[6:40]Power grids are straining under the demand for cooling, and tens of millions of people in small homes without ventilation, without air conditioning, are simply enduring. If this is 2026, what will 2036 look like?
[6:53]Because the trajectory is clear and the time to act was yesterday.
[6:58]Big shifts don't announce themselves. They arrive as updates, version numbers, a quietly changed headline. But zoom out and you'll see it. The way we work is being rewritten.
[7:09]Cars are turning into software. Your phone already knows what you'll ask before you do. These aren't trends or hype, they're ripples. Small, quiet moments that spread until the whole surface is changed.
[7:23]This is Ripple, an explainer series around tech, auto, and AI with me, Konark Tyagi, where we explain the future using the past and the present before it feels like one.
[7:40]The world moves fast. Power shifts, unexpected developments, changing alliances. Every day brings a new headline. But headlines are only the beginning.
[7:54]Because behind every story, there is context. There are consequences and there are questions worth asking. Find the answers, understand the story. Take on the world.
[8:08]This is Hem Kaar Saroya for First Post. Vantage.
