Goa-based scientists find extreme rainfall link to Arctic melting
By Newton Sequeira
The rapid melting of the frigid Arctic nearly 9,000km away is likely to have caused the extreme witnessed in the Indian sub-continent over the past few decades, say at the Goa-based National Centre for Polar and Ocean.
A recent by researchers from India and Norway found that the periods of increasing extreme rainfall events in India during June to September coincide with rapidly declining summer sea ice in the Arctic.
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The findings from the study show that the upper atmospheric circulation changes due to Arctic sea ice loss facilitate enhanced moisture supply and convection over the Indian landmass and cause increased extreme rainfall events.
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Climate researchers have noticed more “extreme rainfall periods” in 2019 and 2020 as compared to 2018, but large parts of India have also witnessed drought-like conditions due to the unequal distribution of rainfall. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), in its ‘Statement of Climate of India during 2020’, shows that high-intensity precipitation events have been on the rise, leading to flooding in Kerala, north Karnataka, Maharashtra (including Mumbai), Assam, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, south Gujarat and even Punjab.
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