{"id":35985,"date":"2023-06-21T04:46:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T23:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=35985"},"modified":"2025-04-21T14:04:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T08:34:59","slug":"heatwave-deaths-why-a-heat-stroke-kills-and-how-to-stay-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/heatwave-deaths-why-a-heat-stroke-kills-and-how-to-stay-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Heat Wave?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Heat wave?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Criterion for Declaring Heat wave?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How India Meteorological Department (IMD) Monitors the Heat wave?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How Does Heatwave Affect Human Body?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How to Avoid Heat Stroke?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Amid heatwave deaths being reported in parts of the country, Union Health minister <strong>Mansukh Mandaviya<\/strong> held a meeting with senior officials of the India Meteorological Department, National Disaster Management Authority, and the Health ministry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Heat wave?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Qualitatively<\/strong>, heat wave is a condition of air temperature which becomes fatal to human body when exposed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Quantitatively<\/strong>, it is defined based on the temperature thresholds over a region in terms of actual temperature or its departure from normal.<\/li>\n<li>In certain countries it is defined in term of the heat index based on temperature and humidity or based on extreme percentile of the temperatures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Criterion for Declaring Heat wave?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Heat wave is considered if maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40<sup>0<\/sup>C or more for Plains and at least 30<sup>0<\/sup>C or more for Hilly regions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>For coastal regions \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>When maximum temperature departure is 4.5<sup>0<\/sup>C or more from normal, Heat Wave may be described provided actual maximum temperature is 37<sup>0<\/sup>C or more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Period of Heat wave over India \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It is occurring mainly during March to June and in some rare cases even in July. The peak month of the heat wave over India is May.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Heat wave prone areas of India \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Heat wave generally occurs over plains of northwest India, Central, East &amp; north Peninsular India during March to June.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How India Meteorological Department (IMD) Monitors the Heat wave?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>IMD has a big network of surface observatories covering entire country to measure various metrological parameters like Temperature, Relative humidity, pressure, wind speed &amp; direction etc.<\/li>\n<li>Based on daily maximum temperature station data, climatology of maximum temperature is prepared for the period <strong>1981-2010<\/strong> to find out normal maximum temperature of the day for particular station.<\/li>\n<li>Thereafter, IMD declared heat wave over the region as per its definition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How Does Heatwave Affect Human Body?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>We all feel drained and tired after stepping out on an extremely hot day.<\/li>\n<li>This is referred to as <strong>heat exhaustion<\/strong>, which happens when the body sweats excessively to keep the core temperature low.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>heat stroke<\/strong> happens when the ambient temperature is so high that the body is unable to sweat to regulate the core temperature, which shoots up to 40<sup>0<\/sup>C.<\/li>\n<li>In these cases, there is a <strong>severe imbalance of salts such as sodium and potassium in the body<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The high core temperature coupled with salt imbalances disrupts organs, leading to a host of symptoms.<\/li>\n<li>It can affect the brain, making a person foggy, drowsy, and in severe cases may also lead to a person going into a coma.<\/li>\n<li>It can lead to kidney and liver damage as well. A cascade of such symptoms leads to death due to heat stroke.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How to Avoid Heat Stroke?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The primary aim should be to <strong>bring down the core temperature of the body fast<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This can be done by pouring cold water over the person, making them drink cold drinks, and giving them electrolytes to balance salt levels.<\/li>\n<li>To prevent heat stroke, it is better to avoid stepping out in direct sunlight, especially between noon and 3 pm. You should avoid strenuous activity during this time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is a heat dome?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A heat dome is caused when atmosphere traps hot ocean air, as if bounded by a lid or cap. Heat domes happen when strong high pressure atmospheric conditions combine with the influence of a La Ni\u00f1a.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What do you mean by temperature inversion?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A temperature inversion is a layer in the atmosphere in which air temperature increases with height.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-health\/heatwave-deaths-why-a-heat-stroke-kills-and-how-to-stay-safe-8675854\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Heatwave deaths: Why a heat stroke kills, and how to stay safe<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/internal.imd.gov.in\/section\/nhac\/dynamic\/FAQ_heat_wave.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>IMD<\/u><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heatwave is defined based on the temperature thresholds in a region in terms of actual temperature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}