Under the influence of strong to very strong El Nino, the whole globe is experiencing warmer conditions. Mauritius is no exception and has lately experienced persistent warm spells that could be compared to a heat wave.
By definition “Meteorological heatwaves are the consequence of local cumulative excess heat over a sequence of unusually hot days and nights”.
There is no formal definition of heat wave for Mauritius, though occasionally the island is impacted by “warm spell”, a terminology used locally. Such “warm spells” may be considered as equivalent to the low intensity heatwaves.
For the Republic of Mauritius, daily temperature anomalies have been classified as follows:
(i) Normal temperature: when daily temperature is within ± 1.0 oC of the monthly long term mean,
(ii) Slightly above (below) normal: when daily temperature is within +1.1 oC (-1.1 oC) to + 2.0 oC (-2.0 oC) of the monthly long term mean,
(iii) Above (below) normal: when daily temperature is > +2.0 oC (< – 2.0 oC) of the monthly long term mean,
Light northerly wind conditions brought very warm and moist air over our region. Combined with above normal ambient temperatures, this resulted in an increase in the discomfort level.
The 04 January 2024 is actually the warmest day of summer 2023-2024 as at now.
This indicates that Mauritius was indeed under the influence of “warm spell” conditions comparable to a low intensity heatwave, from 20 to 24 December 2023 and from 03 to 06 January 2024.
