Combined effects of rising heat and humidity will affect India's northeast the most in the world

The effects of rising heat levels have been told to us and are known the world over now. However, a recent research has stated that the combined effects of rising heat and humidity will affect us worse and the worst areas to be affected by this will be the populated areas of north-east India. A new study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, projects that in coming decades the effects of high humidity in many areas will dramatically increase.

The research strongly states that millions of people will suffer worldwide but the hardest-hit area in terms of human impact, will probably be densely populated north-eastern India. Using global climate models, the researchers have mapped current and projected future "wet bulb" temperatures, which reflect the combined effects of heat and humidity. And the study has found that by the 2070s, high wet-bulb readings that now occur maybe only once a year will prevail 100 to 250 days of the year in some parts of the tropics.

"Lots of people would crumble well before you reach wet-bulb temperatures of 32 C, or anything close," said coauthor Radley Horton, a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "The results could be 'transformative' for all areas of human endeavour – economy, agriculture, military, recreation," he said.

The study projects that some parts of the southern mideast and northern India may even sometimes hit 35 wet-bulb degrees celsius by late century, which is equal to the human skin temperature and the theoretical limit at which people will die is hours without artificial cooling. Other areas which are likely to bear the brunt of heat and humidity include the southeastern US, the Amazon, western and central Africa, the Arabian peninsula and eastern China.