Number Theory: Why has the heatwave taken such a heavy toll?

The first part of this series looked at the most common indicator of extreme heat – maximum temperatures – to show how the summer this year is unprecedented in large parts of northwestern India. However, high maximum temperatures are not the only factor that makes heat unbearable, an HT analysis shows. For example, northwestern regions are not the only ones from where heat-related deaths have been reported in the past month — states such as Bihar and Odisha, where maximum temperatures do not appear as extreme as in northwestern India, also reported large numbers of fatalities. This suggests that more indicators are needed to describe the heatwave of the past month, which is what the following four maps attempt.