People suffer hot weather in Bengaluru, India, April 29, 2024. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

From Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, in the west to Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines in the east, large regions of Asia experienced temperatures well above 40 Celsius for multiple days. Temperatures in Kolkata, India, in late April reached 46 C – 10 C higher than the seasonal average – with climate change making extreme temperatures throughout South Asia about 45 times more likely, the report said. Prolonged severe heat has affected the lives of billions of people on the continent.

Many countries have had to issue health warnings, close schools, and ration electricity due to concerns about the risk of overloading the national grid. WWA's preliminary statistics show that hundreds of people died and crops were destroyed by heat in Asian countries in April.

According to WWA, climate change is the main cause of these unusual heat waves. According to Julien Nicolas, climate scientist at the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the entire world experienced record high temperatures in April. "April this year was the warmest April in record globally. That is the eleventh month which the temperature has been the warmest on record for the same month in all previous years which we have data," said Julien Nicolas.

Asian countries also suffered from other extreme weather phenomena, including historic floods in the UAE, Oman, and southern China.