Pakistan nears 50 degree Celsius, may break its own world heat record | World News

The sweltering heat has already pushed the temperatures in central and southern Pakistan to 48 degrees Celsius last weekend and is forecast to climb through Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Meteorological Department predicted heatwave conditions from April 26 to 30, advising the public to take precautionary measures as Nawabshah in Pakistan is expected to surpass the world’s highest recorded April temperature of 50 degrees, set in April 2018, The Washington Post reported

Which countries will be the hottest?

Temperatures higher than 110 degrees Fahrenheit are forecast in 21 countries this week: Pakistan, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, India, Iraq, Qatar, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, South Sudan, Bahrain, Mali, Senegal, Chad, Ethiopia, Niger, Eritrea, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

Current forecasts use the highly reliable ECMWF model, suggesting temperatures could reach 49 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday.

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However, the same model underestimated temperatures last weekend by about 2 to 3 degrees — raising the possibility that the actual peak could breach the record-setting 50 degrees mark.

Late in the week, the unusually hot air mass will move eastward toward China, as a new heat wave causes stifling heat across Central Asia, where temperatures in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are forecast to soar past 38 degrees Celsius.

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According to global temperature data, April 2025 has already been exceptionally warm, with 63% of the planet experiencing above-average temperatures.

Warmer-than-average conditions have affected 116 countries; 39 have been cooler than average.

These extremes are increasingly consistent with a rapidly warming climate. The first quarter of 2025 ranked as the second-warmest on record globally, only behind 2024, despite a transition from a warming El Niño to a typically cooler La Niña.