When the asphalt reaches 64 degrees, it's no longer a question of comfort - it's survival. The Indian capital Delhi has spent weeks baking under an extreme heatwave, with official daytime temperatures above 40 degrees, but thermal cameras reveal something far worse: the surfaces of streets, cars, and concrete heat up to 64 degrees, a danger that hits the poorest hardest.

The gap between „43 degrees" in the forecast and „64 degrees" on the street lies in the method of measurement. Official figures measure air temperature under standard conditions; thermal cameras capture surface heat. Researchers documented that while it was 42 degrees in the shade under an overpass, a motorcyclist waiting at a traffic light in direct sun was exposed to 64. Just three metres away, under a tree, the temperature dropped to 39.8.

Doctors warn that the body stops functioning normally once you go past 40 degrees - what follows is exhaustion, headaches, and in severe cases confusion, cramps, and organ failure. The advice is simple: water, light clothing, avoiding outdoor work between 10:30 and 15:00. But that's a luxury the poor of Delhi don't have.

Next to the Red Fort, street vendors hold out on a pavement measuring 57 degrees. „What choice do we, the poor, have?" asks a woman selling dried fruit, dizzy and with vision problems. Another vendor describes a hell with no way out: „There's no relief by day or by night. Even after a shower I can't fall asleep. The fan just blows hot air." The Balkans remember their own heatwaves, but even those who think this is „someone else's problem" should pause: the heat baking Delhi today is the same one that hits us harder every summer. The question isn't whether it will reach us - it's how ready we'll be when it does.