According to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Statement on Climate of India during 2022, the annual mean land surface air temperature in India was 0.51 °C above the long-term average for the period of 1981–2010 in 2022. The nationwide records commenced in 1901, and since then, the year 2022 was the fifth warmest year on record. Despite this, it was lower than the highest warming observed over India during 2016, which had an anomaly of +0.71 °C, but higher than 2021, which had an anomaly of +0.44 °C.
Global Mean Temperature
Global mean temperature in 2022 was estimated to be 1.15±0.13 °C which is above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial period average. This would likely make the past eight years (2015–2022) the warmest on record. Despite La Nina conditions keeping global temperature low for the second consecutive year, 2022 has still been most likely to be the fifth or sixth warmest year on record.
Indian Mean Temperature
The all-India mean temperature between January and February 2022 was normal with an anomaly of – 0.04 °C. It was above normal between March and May 2022 with an anomaly of ±1.06 °C. There was an anomaly of +0.36 °C during the monsoon season between June and September 2022. Between October and December 2022, there was an anomaly of +0.52 °C during the post-monsoon season.
India averaged monthly mean temperatures for the country during 2022, which were above normal except for January and February with an anomaly of 0.09 °C and –0.16 °C respectively, where it was normal. The all-India mean temperature, during the month of March, had an anomaly of +1.61 °C, and April had an anomaly of +1.36 °C, which were the second highest since 1901. December, too, had an anomaly of +1.00 °C which was the highest since 1901. The maximum temperature was the highest and the minimum temperature was the third highest for the month of March since 1901. The maximum temperature was the third highest and the minimum temperature was the second highest for the month of April since 1901. Both the maximum and minimum temperatures were the second highest for the month of December since 1901.
The temperatures were consistently ranging between 3 °C and 8 °C above normal for more than six days during March and April, 2022. This broke many decadal and some all-time records in several parts of the country such as the western Himalayas, the plains of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Jharkhand also experienced heatwaves. In some areas, the temperatures were ranging between 40 °C and 44 °C towards the end of March 2022. The heatwave conditions had continued in April too and reached its preliminary peak towards the end of the month. Such heatwaves also increase the risk of forest fires. In 2022, almost 70 per cent of India was affected by the heatwave till end of April. Towards the end of April and in May 2022, the heatwave extended into the coastal areas and eastern parts of India. During these months, high temperatures adversely affected grain filling and caused early deterioration and reduction in crop yields, especially wheat.
Rainfall in India
In 2022, the overall rainfall over the country was 108 per cent of its long period average (LPA) value based on the period 1971–2020. (LPA is the average rainfall recorded for a 50-year period during the months of June to September. It is kept as a benchmark while forecasting the quantitative rainfall for the monsoon season). The winter season rainfall was 147 per cent of its LPA. The pre-monsoon rainfall was 99 per cent of its LPA. Rainfall during the southwest monsoon season was 106 per cent and during the post-monsoon season, rainfall was 119 per cent of the LPA.
The monsoon started earlier than normal and the withdrawal of monsoon was also later than normal in 2022. Most of the Indian Subcontinent received high precipitation totals. The annual rainfall (averaged over the country) was 108 per cent of its LPA based on the data of 1971–2020. Rainfall over the country as a whole during the principal rainy season of India (the south-west monsoon season), between June and September 2022, was normal at 106 per cent of LPA. During the monsoon season, South Peninsular India, one of the four broad geographical regions, received seasonal rainfall which is 122 per cent of its LPA. At the same time, Central India and Northwest India received seasonal rainfall which is 119 and 101 per cent of its LPA, respectively. East and Northeast India, during this time, received seasonal rainfall of 82 per cent of its LPA.
During the post-monsoon or the Northeast monsoon season, between October and December 2022, rainfall over the country was 119 per cent which was above normal. The seasonal rainfall during the post-monsoon season over the core region of the south peninsula—Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam; Rayalaseema; Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal; South Interior Karnataka; and Kerala, and Mahe—was normal at 110 per cent of the LPA.
However, the floods due to the heavy rainfall affected many parts of the country, especially Assam had to face severe floods and landslides since April 2022 due to the pre-monsoon showers followed by the south-west monsoon 2022. Urban floods in most parts of Bengaluru city happened due to heavy rainfall in September 2022 which caused traffic bottlenecks, power outages, residential floods, and inundated roads.
Standardised Precipitation Index
The Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) is an index used for monitoring drought conditions which is prepared on the basis of precipitation. This index is negative for dry conditions and positive for wet conditions. As the dry or wet conditions become more intense, the index becomes more positive or negative. The cumulative SPI values of the whole of 2022 indicate that extremely wet-severely wet conditions pertained over parts of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam and Meghalaya, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Konkan and Goa, Central Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Rayalaseema, Tamil Nadu, North Interior Karnataka, South Interior Karnataka, and Lakshadweep. On the other hand, extremely dry-severely dry conditions were noted over parts of Assam and Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
Extreme Weather Events and their Impacts
Tropical cyclones In 2022, three cyclones were formed over the north of Indian Ocean in the Bay of Bengal. Of these, ‘Asani’ and ‘Mandous’ were two severe cyclonic storms and the third one, ‘Sitrang’, was a cyclonic storm.
‘Mandous’, which formed in the post-monsoon season over the Bay of Bengal, happened between December 6 and 10, 2022. Mandous then crossed north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts between Puducherry and Sriharikota and claimed many lives.
During the pre-monsoon season (between May 7 and 12), another severe cyclonic storm ‘Asani’ formed in the Bay of Bengal. Before turning into a deep depression on May 11, it claimed 17 livestock and some other damage in Andhra Pradesh.
On the other hand, the cyclonic storm ‘Sitrang’ formed during the post-monsoon season (October 22 and 25), and crossed the Bangladesh coast and caused damage in Assam and Mizoram.
Impact of extreme weather events In 2022, India experienced extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, landslide, lightning, thunderstorm, etc., other than the tropical cyclones. There was also significant flooding at various stages during the monsoon season, particularly in the northeast monsoon in June 2022. The highest number of human casualties (around 2,227 casualties) in India due to extreme weather events in three years was reported in 2022.
A total of 1,285 people (58 per cent of total casualties) died due to lightning strikes and thunderstorms in 2022. Of the 418 deaths in Bihar, 415 were due to lightning and thunderstorms. The casualties due to lightning and thunderstorms in other states were from Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Assam. Heavy rains, floods, and landslides were the second highest killer in 2022, claiming 835 lives in India in 2022.
After Bihar, the states most vulnerable to extreme weather events, in 2022, were Assam with 257 casualties, followed by Uttar Pradesh (201), Maharashtra (194), Odisha (194), Jharkhand (130), Rajasthan (126), Madhya Pradesh (117) and Chhattisgarh (79). Union territories such as Delhi, Ladakh, and Puducherry, along with Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, and Punjab reported less than 10 deaths in 2022.
Other events like snowfall, cold waves, heatwaves, dust storms, gales, and hailstorms also affected different parts of the country in 2022, including loss of life, injury, loss of livestock, and damage to crops and public and private property.
These events have underlined the need for better disaster management preparedness, weather warnings, and climate-friendly living conditions.
© Spectrum Books Pvt Ltd.