Living With the Heat: Impact and Building Future Resilience

New Delhi, Gurgaon, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Nagpur, Yavatmal, Kota, Bikaner, Gwalior, and Raipur – 10 cities from six different states – Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh – found themselves besides 40 other Indian cities on a ‘Hot List’ compiled by AQI, the air quality monitoring platform, on April 27, 2026. It was a list of the top 50 hottest cities in the world, all of which were from India (Figure 1). There were no cities from the Middle East or sub-Saharan Africa or Australia on the list – regions we traditionally associate with high temperatures. Average maximum temperature across these 50 cities was around 44.7 °C with the lowest maximum temperature reported as 41.9°C in Solapur, Maharashtra. At the time of writing this, major parts of northwest, central and peninsular India including Delhi NCR are facing normal to severe heat waves with maximum temperatures staying between 43 – 45 °C and breaching 47 °C in Vidarbha region, Maharashtra. Such spells of extreme heat are not new in India, and it is how the months of May and June have always been identified with when schools close for annual summer holidays. What is relatively new is how these extreme heat events are now arriving early in April and even late March, and the increasing frequency and duration of these events.