The hottest day in Pakistan has been recorded on Sunday, people of Turbat were bearer of the scorching heat, the temperature rose up to 53.5°C.
The temperature stood equal to the record breaking Mohenjo Daro’s temperature back on May 27, 2010 which broke a 12-year record of Larkana of 53°C on May 31, 1988.
A senior meteorologist at the Met Department told that the earlier recorded highest temperature in Turbat was 52°C on May 30, 2009. However, the temperature kept fluctuating between 50°C and 52°C over the past few days and peaked on Sunday.
He further predicted the current heatwave to be persistent for the next three to four days across the country including interior Sindh, southern Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The senior meteorologist also said that the weather will remain hot and dry in the aforementioned parts of the country.
Explaining the heat waves, he said that Pakistan has been under influence of extreme climate change due to global warming, Pakistanis have witnessed several extreme weathers occurring in the past few years. He also informed that heat wave also broke records in the month of April.
Pakistan Meteorological Department collected data that shows the temperature in Sukkur on April 16 was 47°C, the previous recorded highest was 46.5°C on April 25, 2000. In the meantime, Sibi, Faisalabad, Larkana and Dera Ismail Khan’s temperature also broke decades old records for April.
The meteorologist said that a pre-monsoon is expected in Pakistan that would help lowering down the temperature across the country.
Earlier on Sunday – the Met Department published a temperature reading of 54°C for Turbat, if true – it would’ve been the hottest day in Pakistan as well as world’s highest ever temperature reading recorded.
The current record is with Death Valley in the US on June 10, 1913 of 56.7°C, although some scientists doubt the accuracy of this number. The next highest and most reliable is 53.9°C, also recorded in Death Valley on five different occasions – July 20, 1960, July 18, 1998, July 20, 2005, July 7, 2007, and June 30, 2013.
There are a few more readings currently under investigation by the World Meteorological Organisation. One was at Mitribah weather station in Kuwait on July 21, 2016 – recorded temperature 54°C, other one was in Basra, Iraq – recorded at 53.9°C on July 22, 2016 – the very next day.
At some point, Azizya in Libya held the record of being at 57.8°C on September 13, 1922, however it was disregarded by World Meteorological Organisation.
