India Records Hottest October Since 1901: What’s Causing the Heat?

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) says that October was the hottest month in India in more than 100 years. This is a very important climate event.
It got as hot as 26.92 degrees Celsius on average, which is 1.23 degrees Celsius warmer than the normal October weather.
It's not just a blip on the weather screen; it's a new record that everyone is talking about.

So, what's causing this strange warmth? Officials from the IMD say that the usual cooler winds from the west have not been present. Instead, there is a rare flow of easterly winds that are connected to low-pressure systems in the Bay of Bengal. In northwest India, too, the usual cooling patterns we expect this time of year are thrown off by persistent monsoon winds. The Director General of IMD, Mrityunjay Mohapatra, said that the northwesterly winds that usually help cool these areas down haven't shown up yet.

The highs during the day aren't the only ones feeling the heat; the lows at night are also higher than usual. In October, the lowest temperature on average was 21.85 degrees Celsius, up from 20.01 degrees Celsius in previous years. It's still pretty warm outside after the sun goes down.

It looks like the northwest plains will stay about 2 to 5 degrees warmer than normal over the next few weeks, according to the IMD. But before you freak out about the summer never ending, there is some good news: as November goes on, the weather should start to slowly get cooler. Even though November isn't usually a winter month, it's usually the month before December, when it gets colder. January and February are when we get the chill we're used to.

The sudden warmth is causing problems in the northern states. In the south of India, people are getting ready for the northeast monsoon, which will bring heavy rain. States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala should get ready for heavy rain, but parts of the northwest may not get as much rain as usual. This is a sharp reminder of how different weather can be in different parts of the country at the same time.

It's interesting that the IMD experts have suggested that a neutral El Niño in the Pacific could be holding off the arrival of cooler weather. On the other hand, La Niña conditions could happen by December. This would mean stronger, colder winds and maybe a chillier winter for many places of India.

With temperatures breaking records and weather trends that are hard to predict, it's clear that climate change is still having a big effect on our daily lives. Even though it's nice to be warm in October, these changes can have big and complicated effects. We should all keep our fingers crossed for a smooth change to the cooler months.

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