‘Not normal’: On one April day, all of the planet’s top 50 hottest cities were in just one country

An Indian cycle rickshaw puller drinks water on a hot day in Allahabad, India, Saturday, June 7, 2014. (AP / Rajesh Kumar Singh)

On one day in late April, something very unusual happened. Every single one of the planet’s top 50 hottest cities was in just one country: India.

This is according to data compiled by AQI, the air quality monitoring platform. There is “no modern precedent,” AQI said on its website. “This is not a normal April. And it demands a serious, data-grounded reckoning.”

AQI’s rankings are based on temperatures across 24 hours, including the daytime peak and the coolest point at night, as well as as other data including rainfall, wind and humidity.

On April 27, average peak temperatures across all 50 Indian cities on the list hit 112.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Top of AQI’s list was the city of Banda in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which has a harsh, sub-tropical climate which often delivers brutal summers.

Even before what are typically hottest summer months, the heat has ratcheted up. On April 27, temperatures in Banda reached 115.16 degrees, according to AQI, the highest temperature recorded anywhere on the planet that day. The coolest Banda got, in the early hours of that morning, was 94.5 degrees.

The majority of India’s hottest cities were located in the country’s “interior heat belt,” according to AQI.

The extreme heat wave India experienced in the second half of last month “stands among the top if not the top harshest for April, which is usually not the hottest month of the year,” said Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian who tracks extreme temperatures. Dozens, if not hundreds of April heat records were broken, he said.

One day’s data does not necessarily point to a trend, but India has long been grappling with increasingly intense heat, fueled by the climate crisis.

Summers are getting hotter and starting earlier. Last year, blistering heat arrived in April for parts of India, where temperatures spiked above 100 degrees, up to 5 degrees above the seasonal average.

Experts have warned heat in India is becoming so extreme, it may “cross the survivability limit” for healthy humans by 2050.

Heat is the deadliest type of extreme weather, and the vulnerable are most affected, including the very young and very old, as well as outdoor workers, who get little respite from the beating sun. Extreme heat threatens farming and food production and puts huge pressure on India’s economy and health care system.

This year’s heat wave came as the country also grapples with fallout from the Iran war, which has cut oil supplies, leaving it short on fuel at a time when cooling needs are soaring.

Some fear a potentially blistering summer lies ahead. The Indian Meteorological Department has warned parts of the country are on course for above average summer temperatures.

The predicted imminent arrival of El Niño, the weather pattern which originates in the Pacific Ocean, may also spell trouble for India’s upcoming monsoon season.

The Indian Meteorological Department has forecast below average monsoon rains in 2026, stoking fears for the country’s farming industry, as well as for reservoirs and aquifers that provide drinking water. Previous El Niños have seen lower rainfall and more severe droughts in the country.

There is a high risk of more extreme heat affecting several states in central and eastern India later this month, with the heat index — which measures how hot it truly feels by combining temperature, humidity and other factors — potentially soaring to 122 and even 140 degrees, Herrera said. These are “dangerous levels,” he added.