JAKARTA: Indonesia experienced its hottest April for more than four decades, two senior weather agency officials said on Wednesday, as the region endures a suffocating heatwave and global temperatures continue to break records.
Extreme heat has blasted Asia from the Philippines to India in recent weeks, triggering heatstroke deaths, school closures and desperate prayers for cooling rain.
Achmad Fachri Radjab, head of the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency’s (BMKG) climate change information centre told AFP that the average air temperature in April was the highest compared to April from 1981-2023.
Ardhasena Sopaheluwakan, BMKG’s deputy of climatology, also confirmed the agency’s findings.
Air Temperature Record in Indonesia
Indonesia witnessed an average air temperature in April of 27.7 degrees Celsius, the highest for the month since 1981 and beating the last highest average April temperature set in 2016 by 0.1 degrees, according to BMKG data.
It also represented an increase of nearly 1 degree Celsius in April 2024 compared to the month’s average temperature of 26.85 degrees Celsius for the period 1991 to 2020, the agency said.
Radjab said that this year, it was 0.89 degrees higher than the average (for that period).
He added that when it comes to causes, there are many factors, not only climate but also environmental factors must have an influence.
Residents of South Asia and Southeast Asia from the Philippines to Myanmar were punished last month as they sweltered in record temperatures.
Over 100 temperature records fell across Vietnam in April while Bangladesh and Myanmar also witnessed heat records for the month broken.
