Over 800 annual cold-related deaths in North India since 2013: Mospi

Total number of cold wave days declined in 2022; will this year buck the trend?

As North India struggles with a cold wave, data shows that in the last decade, on an average, over 800 people have died every year due to exposure to the cold. However, the number of cold wave days experienced in a year have declined.

Calendar 2022 had fewer cold wave days than 2021, shows the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s Environmental Statistics report.

First, though, it is important to understand what qualifies as a cold wave. The India Meteorological Department’s definition of a cold wave is based not just on the departure from the normal minimum temperature but also on the geographical location. 

For instance, a cold wave is said to exist over the plains when the minimum temperature drops below 10 degree Celsius and for hilly regions when it is below zero degree Celsius.

The sum of cold wave days experienced across 24 states in India declined in 2022. The states recorded a cumulative 143 cold wave days in 2012, after which they kept declining before rising in 2018. About 57 such days were recorded in 2022.

Also, just 10 states account for three-fourths of all the cold wave instances in the country.

The highest number of cold wave days were recorded in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (which includes the data for Ladakh) between 2013 and 2022. The area recorded 85 cold-wave days in the decade before 2022. Haryana followed with 79 days, Bihar with 61, Uttar Pradesh with 56, Chhattisgarh with 53 and Delhi with 51 days in the same period.

Northern India has been in the grip of a cold wave and has been facing dense fog conditions since December 25. On Wednesday, the Met issued a cold-wave weather alert until January 28 across some northern states including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. 

In a study titled “Cold Day and Dense Fog Conditions over North India during Winter 2023-24” released last week, the Met attributed the persistence of a severe winter to the prevalence of El Nino conditions, a strong jet stream and the lack of any active western disturbance.

Meanwhile, severe winter conditions and dense fog have led to major disruptions in rail and flight services, especially in the national capital of Delhi.

Though no loss of life due to the cold wave has been reported as of now, about 720 people lost their lives due to exposure to cold in 2022 compared to 618 in 2021, according to data from the Accidental Deaths and Suicides report. A decadal analysis shows that 2.2 people lost their lives each day due to the cold between 2013 and 2022.