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Story by Ben Noll

Pakistan may hit 120 degrees this week. It could be a global record.

Story by Ben Noll

• 13h •

3 min read

Pakistan may hit 120 degrees this week. It could be a global record.© Shahzaib Akber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Remarkable heat across South Asia may challenge global temperature records this week.

Temperatures in central and southern Pakistan rose to 118 degrees Fahrenheit last weekend and are forecast to climb through Wednesday, possibly nearing the global April record of 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

Temperatures may approach record levels for April in Pakistan on Tuesday and Wednesday as a heat wave affects the Middle East and South Asia.© Ben Noll/Data source: ECMWF

Nawabshah, a city in southern Pakistan, reached that scorching mark back in April 2018 and could do it again this week. The Pakistan Meteorological Department predicted heat wave conditions from April 26 to 30, advising the public to take precautionary measures.

A list of monthly global temperature extremes maintained by weather historian Maximiliano Herrera confirms Nawabshah’s temperature from April 2018 as the record for April, at least across all of Asia.

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An April reading of 124 degrees in Santa Rosa, Mexico, during 2001 may not be reliable.

A sprawling dome of high pressure, like a heavy lid trapping heat in a pot, is causing the wave of excessive warmth, stretching from the Middle East into South Asia.

This area has been home to some of the planet’s most unusually warm temperatures during April.

Such conditions are expected in a warming world, where heat extremes are greatly outpacing cool ones.

When and where it will be warmest

Heat will build across the Middle East and South Asia through the week, with Wednesday and Thursday looking like the hottest days for Pakistan.

One of the world’s most reliable weather models, called ECMWF, is predicting maximum temperatures around 120 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday in central Pakistan.

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The same model slightly underestimated high temperatures last weekend by about 2 to 3 degrees. Accounting for this, it’s still possible that temperatures in Pakistan reach the low 120s.

Temperatures higher than 110 degrees 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.

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 100 degrees.

Explore the highest forecast temperatures around the world in the table below.

Record April temperatures

Temperatures have been more than 4 degrees above average in Pakistan so far this April, even before the arrival of this week’s potentially record-breaking heat.

Iraq has been nearly 3 degrees above average and had its highest April temperature on record, 115 degrees, as reported by Herrera.

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Record heat has also affected the United Arab Emirates, where it reached 115 degrees, Iran and Turkmenistan — the most unusually warm country on the planet during April, where it’s been over 7 degrees above average.

A 113-degree temperature reading in Niger was also reported as a national record.

What it means

Global temperatures have been above average for 63 percent of the planet so far during April.© Ben Noll/Data source: NOAA

During April so far, 63 percent of the planet has experienced above-average temperatures, while 37 percent has had below-average temperatures.

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

After a record-breaking warm year for the planet in 2024, due in part to a strong El Niño, a La Niña event early this year did little to cool things down, contrary to past trends.

The January to March period was the second-warmest on record for the globe. Only 2024 was warmer during that time frame.

With the summer months quickly approaching for the Northern Hemisphere, unusual and dangerously hot weather conditions are starting to build — conditions aligned with the warm state of the climate.