India's brutal heatwave is a preview for what's to come in the US West

India - Scorching heat has come early to India, and the new searing abnormal is the perfect example of what climate change will do to the US West.

The sizzling highs in India (top and bottom left) are a sign of things to come in the US West.
The sizzling highs in India (top and bottom left) are a sign of things to come in the US West.  © Collage: REUTERS

According to the Indian Meteorological Service temperatures across the heavily populated country of India soared to highs around 110 degrees, caused by a perfect storm of weather patterns and the ongoing climate crisis caused by burning fossil fuels.

The dangerous heat is hotter and earlier in the year than usual, and some parts of India were hotter than they have been in 112 years. And the extreme heatwave is exactly what is heading towards the US West.

Staying cool will become a matter of life and death, but AC units won't do you any good if the temperatures get so hot that power goes out. Plus, food shortages are a real threat when dry seasons happen sooner and last longer, leaving crops to wither in the heat.

The trend shows how hot and dry places get hotter and dryer due to climate change. We're already seeing that with the mega-drought that is parching southwestern US states like California.

Climate scientist Dr. Friederike Otto tweeted, "A heatwave that would have been rare without climate change but is, like heatwaves around the world, much more common now & will become more & more so as long as we burn fossil fuels."

And as bad as things are right now, with water use bans slated for Los Angeles, and dried up reservoirs, if climate change rolls on unchecked, then the heatwaves in India and Pakistan are a taste test of what's coming.

Burning fossil fuels and allowing climate change to continue is going to make parts of our country unlivable, unless we take the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's advice immediately.

Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS

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