On one April day, all of the planet’s top 50 hottest cities were in India
CNN • • world
Key Points:
- On April 27, all of the planet’s 50 hottest cities were located in India, with average peak temperatures reaching 112.5°F, marking an unprecedented heat event according to AQI, an air quality monitoring platform.
- Banda, Uttar Pradesh, recorded the highest temperature that day at 115.16°F, with nighttime lows remaining extremely high at 94.5°F, highlighting the severity of the heat wave in India’s interior heat belt.
- Experts note that April heat records were widely broken, with the current heat wave ranking among the harshest for the month, reflecting a trend of increasingly intense and early heat in India driven by climate change.
- The extreme heat poses serious risks to vulnerable populations, agriculture, and the economy, compounded by fuel shortages due to global geopolitical tensions and warnings of a potentially hotter summer ahead.
- The upcoming El Niño event threatens to reduce monsoon rainfall in 2026, raising concerns about drought, water shortages, and further stress on India’s farming sector and water resources.