New Delhi: Human-induced climate change caused 228 million people to experience 30 or more days of ‘risky heat days’ in a span of just three months – from December 2025 to February 2026, according to a scientific analysis published on March 18. Risky heat days are those with temperatures hotter than 90% of those observed in a local area between 1991 to 2020, which can cause an increase in heat-related health risks such as heat strokes.The analysis lists Mumbai as one of the top 10 megacities across the world that witnessed “unusual temperatures that were strongly influenced by climate change” during these three months. The city witnessed 17 such days during these three months. India-specific data shows that Srinagar experienced the highest number of days: 60 days in three months.Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report on climate change and its impacts, examined the prevalence of risky heat days, temperature anomalies (warmer or cooler conditions than the 1991-2020 average) and changes in values of the Climate Shift Index (CSI) across the world from December 2025 to February 2026.The index, developed by the group’s scientists, quantifies the local influence of climate change on daily temperatures. Positive CSI levels (from 1 to 5) indicate temperatures that are made more likely because of the impacts of climate change: for instance, a CSI level of 2 and higher suggests that unusual temperatures were “strongly influenced” by climate change, and it was twice more than likely that these unusual temperatures were driven by climate change.A hot few monthsTheir results, published on March 18 in a report titled “People Exposed to Climate Change: December 2025-February 2026”, are sobering. One finding is that every day, from December 2025 to February 2026, more than one in six people on the planet experienced temperatures with a strong climate change influence. In 124 countries (home to nearly 2.5 billion people), the average person experienced at least 30 days with temperatures strongly influenced by climate change. In 45 countries, all risky heat days in the past three months were driven by climate change.Overall, around 228 million people experienced 30 or more days of risky heat added by climate change during the last three months. Most of these people (81%) live in Africa.India-specific findingsThe report lists Mumbai as one of the 10 megacities (among the 20 analysed in the report) across the world that witnessed “unusual temperatures that were strongly influenced by climate change”. Mumbai had a CSI level of 2 or higher for 17 days – suggesting that the city experienced unusual temperatures strongly influenced by climate change for 17 days in the three months.“Cities are hotspots of heat risk due to their high population density and land development patterns that intensify heat in urban heat islands,” the report noted.Science has already warned about the dangers of urban heat islands – pockets of higher temperatures within urban areas caused due to higher built up area – in India, and specifically in Mumbai too. A study published in December 2025 found that urban areas in the city have increased by a staggering 77.82% in three decades while vegetation, water, coastal and barren land declined by 37.17%, 24.90%, 5.5% and 7.40% respectively.The increase in land surface temperatures has been from 1.5 °C to 2.5 °C across a single decade. The areas in the city affected by the urban heat island effect, the study says, have grown “exponentially”.India-specific data shows that the state of Manipur witnessed a staggering 62 days at CSI levels of more than 2. (See map below).Source: Climate Central. Among the 59 Indian cities examined for the analysis (that covered a total of 960 cities across the world), Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir showed the highest number of days at a CSI level of 2 or higher. The seasonal temperature anomaly that the city witnessed was 2.7 degrees Celsius.Rajkot in Gujarat and Jodhpur in Rajasthan witnessed the next highest seasonal temperature anomalies, at 1.4 degrees Celsius and 1 degrees Celsius respectively.“This analysis makes clear that climate change is not a future problem – it is a present-day driver of extreme heat around the world,” said Kristina Dahl, Climate Central’s Vice President for Science, in a statement.“Millions of people experienced a month or more of dangerous levels of heat that were made significantly more likely by climate change. In many regions, climate change didn’t just make heat worse – it fully accounted for the most dangerous heat days. We’ve also seen intensified storms, record rainfall and worsening drought conditions around the world over the last few months. Taken all together, these extremes are the latest signals of how fossil fuel emissions are disrupting livelihoods globally.”More hot months ahead for IndiaThese findings come even as experts have already warned that India is going to be witnessing a particularly warm summer this year. The world is stepping out of a La Niña year – atmospheric conditions that typically bring more rain and cooler temperatures especially to India and many other parts of the world – and into an El Niño year, which is usually marked by lesser rain and higher temperatures in many parts of the country. But despite a La Niña, 2025 was the eight warmest year since 1901.The India Meteorological Department has already warned that the coming months (March, April and May) will witness above-normal maximum and minimum temperatures across many parts of the country. The number of heatwave days in many parts of India will also be above-normal, the Department has said.As on March 18, isolated places in Uttar Pradesh have already recorded maximum temperatures “appreciably above normal”, per the IMD, at 3.1 to 5 degrees Celsius above normal. Minimum temperatures have already reached “markedly above normal” levels (above 5.1 degrees Celsius or more) in some parts of western Rajasthan.According to one report, India witnessed its first widespread heatwave episode of the year last week, with severe heat conditions hitting Gujarat’s Saurashtra and Kutch region.