India plans to launch its own heat wave index next year, which will measure the impact of heat on the population and provide alerts for specific locations. The index will be called the “heat hazard score” and will consider factors such as temperature, humidity, wind, and duration of exposure. This score will be a good indicator of heat stress for people and is expected to be better than the current heat index, which is an experimental product. The IMD chief, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, said that the score will be ready in two months and will be operational next summer.
The IMD conducted a heat wave hazard analysis for the entire country last year, which considered maximum temperature, minimum temperature, humidity, wind, and the duration of heat waves. The analysis will help generate heat hazard scores, which will be used as thresholds to issue impact-based heat wave alerts for specific locations. The heat hazard score will depict the severity in terms of numbers, such as on a scale of 1 to 10. While the IMD has not yet incorporated health data into the product, they are planning to do so gradually. However, health data is not readily available in some places.
