Guwahati, Aug 23: Assam is showing effects of climate change and extreme moist heat days increased by nearly five times in the last 50 years, which can create serious health issues in the days to come, said meteorologist and former director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Prof BN Goswami. Talking to The Assam Tribune, Prof Goswami said that as per studies, the number of moist heat days has increased substantially.

“About 50 years back, the extreme moist heat days in a year was around 20 days. But now it has increased to 100 days a year,” he said.

The meteorologist said that in moist heat days, the temperature and humidity increase together, making life miserable for the people. He pointed out that in northern and western India, the temperature is higher than that in Assam, but the humidity is less.

“So the body mechanism can take the heat,” he said. But in case of Assam, both temperature and humidity increase together, which creates problems.

He pointed out that in the extreme moist heat days, even if the air temperature is around 37 degree Celsius, the body feels like more than 55 degree Celsius. In such condition, the body's own cooling mechanism cannot work properly and because of sweat, the body cannot bring out the internal heat.

Prof Goswami said that in such situations, the heart has to pump more and other internal organs of the body can be seriously affected. Such effects of climate change, in fact, lead to serious public health crisis, he said and suggested that the government and policymakers should seriously think about the matter and carry out research in this regard.

Commenting on other visible impacts of climate change, Prof Goswami said that the number of extreme events is increasing sharply. He said that earlier Assam witnessed more days of light drizzles in monsoon.

But now it is either extremely heavy rainfall or nothing. He also pointed out that though the State witnessed extremely heavy rainfall in some parts, the mean rainfall is decreasing with every passing year.