Growing up in the sun-scorched plains of Southern India, where summer temperatures often flirt with 104 degrees Fahrenheit, I learned early that extreme heat is not an anomaly but a seasonal reality to be expected. Yet, all of us confront the metaphorical heat of relentless rhetoric from climate alarmists who insist our planet is overheating beyond the point of salvaging.

In Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), the city I now call home, climate narratives often echo global hysteria. Headlines scream of “record-breaking heat” and “unlivable cities,” yet the data – raw, unfiltered and grounded in reality – tell a different story, one that challenges the hyperbole regularly sweeping over the public.

On average, a Bengaluru March experiences 17 days where temperatures reach or exceed 93 degrees. This year has been no different. We recorded exactly 17 days of 93 degrees or above in March – right on par with the 15-year average. Far from the apocalyptic predictions of endless heatwaves, this summer has been, in a word, normal.

Over the past 15 years, from 2010 to 2024, temperature records for the months of February through May show us that there is no summer crisis. The entire summer of 2018, for instance, had only 23 days above 93 degrees, whereas 2023 had 30 days. In contrast, 2016 had 76 days. Does this indicate an existential crisis? Or does it simply affirm that climate fluctuates? It is the latter.