People in Assam aren't warned of dangerous humid heat, because India's heatwave alerts look at temperature alone.
People in Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh and the rest of Assam during humid heat
Where it stands
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How this problem came to be
- Found1 sourceindia.mongabay.com
- Quoted5 claimseach checked against its page
- BriefWrittenand what solved looks like
- MarketNot sizedon the next engine run
- Kit5 steps21 tools · 6 routes
- People0 want0 live it · 0 would test
The problem, broken down
- Who it hurts
- Residents of Assam's cities and districts, especially outdoor workers, children and older people, during the humid pre-monsoon and monsoon months.
- The moment
- A day when the thermometer stays under the heatwave threshold but humidity pushes the feels-like temperature past 50°C, and no alert is issued.
- What people do today
- Districts issue occasional precautionary advisories, such as school closures or revised timings. Most people rely on the official heatwave alerts, which rarely include Assam.
- Why it's unsolved
- The official heatwave criteria use maximum air temperature and its departure from normal; relative humidity is not part of them, so Assam rarely qualifies and has no Heat Action Plan.
- What solved looks like
- A free daily heat-stress alert for each Assam district, by SMS and web, based on wet-bulb or feels-like temperature from public forecasts, with plain advice for outdoor workers and schools, checked against at least one past summer of local observations.
Evidence
Every claim is tied to the source it comes from- 1Assam rarely crosses IMD's heatwave thresholds, despite a measurable warming trend and more frequent spells of anomalous heat.
- 2Relative humidity is not part of the IMD criteria for declaring a heatwave.
- 3On May 25, 2024, Guwahati recorded a maximum of 40.1°C and the apparent, or feels-like, temperature peaked at around 52°C.
- 4Assam has no Heat Action Plan, while more than 250 cities and districts in 23 heat-prone states have operational plans.
- 5During the monsoon, relative humidity in the state can range between 75% and 95%.
Builders still need to know
- Which heat-stress measure (wet-bulb, heat index, WBGT) do Assam's health officials and doctors trust most?
- Would district administrations send alerts through their own channels if the data were ready?
- Which outdoor workers (tea gardens, construction, delivery) feel it first, and how do they get news today?
Written from the cited sources. Anything they don't say is left as a question, not a guess.
Sources
From a public page with a citation.
What the source says, in short
Assam rarely crosses IMD's heatwave thresholds, despite a measurable warming trend and more frequent spells of anomalous heat. Relative humidity is not part of the IMD criteria for declaring a heatwave. On May 25, 2024, Guwahati recorded a maximum of 40.1°C and the apparent, or feels-like, temperature peaked at around 52°C. Assam has no Heat Action Plan, while more than 250 cities and districts in 23 heat-prone states have operational plans. During the monsoon, relative humidity in the state can range between 75% and 95%.
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