Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Climate change , according to scientists, is likely to have exacerbated the rains that caused devastati...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - Climate change, according to scientists, is likely to have exacerbated the rains that caused devastating flooding across Bangladesh.
While the monsoon rains in South Asia follow natural weather patterns, scientists predict that as global temperatures rise, the rains will become more irregular and torrential.
It would take months to figure just how much climate change contributed to last week's severe rainfall.
However, experts point out that warmer air can contain more water vapour before rain clouds rupture, resulting in more rain falling.
The Bay of Bengal's strong monsoon winds can carry a lot more precipitation, according to Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology. "The current huge amount of rainfall could be a result of climate change."
The El Nino-La Nina weather cycle and the Indian Ocean Dipole are two overlapping patterns in the ocean and atmosphere that influence the South Asian monsoon season, which runs from June to September. These systems are currently generating strong southwesterly winds over the Bay of Bengal.
However, in recent decades, monsoon patterns have evolved, as Bangladesh's average temperature has risen by at least 0.5 degrees Celsius since 1976.
"Instead of having moderate rains throughout the monsoon season, we have long dry periods interspersed with short episodes of strong rains," Koll explained. "When it rains, all that rainwater gets dumped in a matter of hours to days."
Bangladeshi army were steering dinghys through brackish floodwaters on Tuesday, rescuing those in need and delivering food and water to some of the 9.5 million people who had been stranded. Officials estimate that at least 69 individuals have died as a result of the accident.
Last week's severe rains, which caused Bangladesh's rivers to burst their banks, came less than a month after similar rain-related flooding killed at least 25 people in the neighbouring Indian state of Assam.
Bangladesh is one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries, with the World Bank Institute predicting that roughly 3.5 million Bangladeshis are at risk of river flooding each year, according to a 2015 study. The country's agriculture, infrastructure, and clean water supply are also threatened by the floods.
Countries in the region "If there isn't any rain, everyone suffers. When there is too much rain, they suffer "Anders Levermann, a climate scientist at Columbia University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, agreed. "What they'd need is consistent rainfall, which we've enjoyed in the past and which is now endangered by global warming."
