Concrete highways buckle as Central Asia bakes in 40 C heat

A sustained heat wave hovering around 40 degrees Celsius across Central Asia has warped concrete highways and triggered a string of blackouts as power consumption jumped. While temperatures above 40 C are not uncommon in the region, the prolonged stretch of extreme heat over several consecutive days has caused a cascade of problems.

According to the Times of Central Asia (TCA), Almaty — the former capital of Kazakhstan, the region's largest country — recorded three consecutive daily high-temperature records. The mercury hit 38 C on Thursday, July 16, climbed to 39.2 C on Friday and reached 40 C on Saturday. Almaty's all-time July daytime high had been 43.4 C, set in 1983.

The sustained abnormal heat has caused repeated deformation of concrete highways.

KazAvtoZhol, Kazakhstan's state-owned road management company, said warping had occurred along six sections of highway in the southern Zhambyl and Turkestan regions and the northeastern Pavlodar region.

A KazAvtoZhol official said that during periods of extreme heat, the surface temperature of concrete highways can reach 60 to 70 C — and sometimes higher — causing internal stress that leads to deformation of surface slabs. The official added that about 50 workers had repaired the damaged sections and that the company is now closely monitoring its concrete highway network, which stretches 1,600 kilometers.

Almaty health authorities said they received more than 33,600 ambulance calls during the first and second weeks of July, when temperatures were at their highest. Most calls were linked to sudden spikes in blood pressure and cardiovascular complications, authorities said.

Surging use of air conditioners and other cooling appliances drove power demand in Almaty to new daily records between Friday, July 17, and Monday, July 20. Technical failures caused by the strain on the grid led to a series of blackouts at the same time.

The power demand surge extended well beyond Almaty. On July 14, Kazakhstan's nationwide electricity consumption reached 338.66 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), surpassing the 314.27 million kWh generated domestically.

Consumption also exceeded generation every day from July 11 to 13. Kazakhstan typically covers its power shortfalls with imports from Russia.

Neighboring Uzbekistan also saw power consumption jump as the heat persisted. Demand exceeded forecasts, reaching 294.4 million kWh on Saturday, July 18 — 8 percent above last summer's peak.

Power output that same day hit an all-time record of 297.1 million kWh. Even so, technical failures in the grid left multiple districts of the capital Tashkent without electricity.

Kyrgyzstan also experienced a sudden surge in power consumption. On Sunday, July 19, daily electricity use reached about 50.1 million kWh, up 18 percent from the same day a year earlier. Blackouts lasting up to two hours hit parts of the capital Bishkek and the northern Chuy region the same day.

Some parts of Tajikistan recorded the highest temperatures in Central Asia during the heat wave. The Shahrituz district of Khatlon region saw temperatures reach 46 C on some days, while the capital Dushanbe hit 43 C on Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18.

Dushanbe and several other areas also experienced blackouts.

TCA said the mid-July heat wave in Central Asia is not attributable to climate change and that scientific research into its causes is needed.

However, TCA added that the episode has clearly exposed the vulnerability of power grids, roads, public services and urban infrastructure across the region.

The World Bank has estimated that the number of extreme-heat days in major cities across Europe and Central Asia could triple by around 2050, and that without adequate adaptation, annual GDP in those cities could shrink by 2.5 percent.