India, May 14 -- Households - particularly in low- and middle-income groups are highly prone to night-time thermal heat stress, with indoor temperatures frequently exceeding 32degC, equivalent to 5,700 and 5,800 hours (equivalent to eight months) in the worst impacted households. In most households, it was exceeding this between 3,000 and 5,000 hours of continuous heat, a new study has found.

The study, released by the research organisation Climate Trends as part of the India Heat Summit 2026 in Delhi on Wednesday, was carried out across 50 low and middle-income houses in Chennai, between October 2025 and April 2026 using high-resolution sensor data. It found that temperatures peaked between 8 and 9pm at around35degC and nighttime temper...