Large parts of northern and central India are bracing for more days of brutal heat, with temperatures forecast to hit 50° Celsius (122° Fahrenheit) later in the week. Hotter even than the searing 43°C heat on Thursday that scorched New Delhi, the capital city, while a teacher named Shyam Mahato struggled to keep students safe and hydrated from the school’s single tap.
"Heat is getting worse much earlier,” says Mahato, whose classroom is an exposed space underneath a bridge without air conditioning or even a fan.
No one in the city was untouched by the threat of last Thursday’s blazing temperatures. A Bloomberg Green reporter spent hours out on the streets to witness what has become an almost constant daily struggle to endure this long-running wave of severe heat. Aside from brief days of respite, extreme heat has afflicted a region with more than 1 billion people since March. That’s when temperatures in India broke a 122-year record. Neighboring Pakistan has already experienced 50°C.
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