Study finds high-altitude winds and dry soil conditions cause heat waves in 2022

Bicyclists cross the arid forest area near Kurapuri on the coast of Kerala, where trees are dry due to lack of water and extreme weather conditions. File Photos | Photo Source: Hindu

In early 2022, South Asian countries including India, Pakistan and Afghanistan experienced a tense extreme heat wave in the months of March and April.

On April 8, 2025, a study published by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai and Johannes Gutenberg University found why South Asian countries conducted back-to-back extreme heat activities in early spring 2022.

Also read: Why are North India and Central facing severe heat waves? |Explained

In entitled “Driver of South Subheat Waves before Continuous Monsoon 2022: Drivers of Waveguide Interactions and Soil Water Depletion: Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheric Research, Journal of Atmospheric Research published in the American Geophysical Alliance; the team found that these unusually intense heatwave events were driven by processes of different atmospherics in March and April 2022 that complicate the effects of heatwaves.

“Our analysis shows that March heat waves are primarily associated with a sudden increase in the amplitude of the brief atmospheric Rossby waves (tropical jets) transfer energy into the westerly winds, near the equator (subtropical jets) as they get closer during the heat waves,” said Roshan Jha, a Ph.D. student at Mumbai IIT Mumbai.

The heat waves in April occurred differently, rather than in wind modes at high altitudes, which was mainly caused by very dry soil conditions and the heat from Pakistan and northwestern Afghanistan to India to India. It is important that these dry conditions are partly caused by earlier Heatwave in March, which has already dried the land in high temperatures and clear skies, explained Arpita Mondal, associate professor at the Department of Civil Engineering and IIT Centre for Climate Research, the study co-author Arpita Mondal, an associate professor at the Department of Civil Engineering and IIT Mumbai Centre for Climate Research.

“This study reveals a satisfactory pattern: a heat wave can lay the foundation for another more intense heat event by removing moisture from the soil, when the soil becomes too dry. It creates a cycle that makes the next cycle worse. When the soil has moisture, in a transparent sky state, some of the energy of the sun makes the air evaporate, rather than evaporate in the air, but emits air in the air. Explained.

Ghosh, convener of the Mumbai IIT Mumbai IIT Convening Centre, said that understanding these mechanisms is crucial to improve our ability to predict and prepare for extreme caloric events in South Asia. “As climate change continues to affect atmospheric wind patterns, identifying these specific drivers helps us better predict and mitigate the impact of future heat waves,” he added.

Another co-author is Professor Volkmar Wirth and Dr. Christopher Polster from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany.