The 2015-16 El Nino, which caused drought and increased temperatures, ranks in the top three of all time, says the Bureau of Meteorology's manager of climate prediction Andrew Watkins.
But now that weather pattern that led to a seemingly endless summer for eastern Australia is finally over and cooler temperatures are on the way, he says.
Eastern Australia isn’t the only region that’s unseasonably warm right now; a record-breaking heatwave has seen temperatures soar to over 50° Celsius in recent days.
Severity of heat waves up in last 15 years, says IMD https://t.co/2JGoixNk4zhttps://t.co/74Cyohwo11 — Times of India (@timesofindia) May 21, 2016
Newspapers across the country have reported hundreds of people dying from heatstroke in recent weeks and farmer suicides rise. The sustained high temperatures have caused roads to melt, stopping pedestrians in their tracks.
Temperatures peaked in the northern desert province of Rajasthan where they hit 51° Celsius, the highest in the country’s recorded history.
In his April radio broadcast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the ongoing drought, urging villages to conserve water and consider planting less water-intensive crops.
A similar heatwave in May last year reportedly killed over 2,000 people. It seems that event can no longer be regarded as a one-off occurrence.
"It's not just an unusually hot summer, it is climate change," the Indian Government’s Science Minister said at the time.
