Autos stand in flood water brought on by heavy rains with the Burj Khalifa tower seen within the background, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Picture: Reuters)
The rising temperatures led by human-induced emissions have intensified excessive climate occasions globally, particularly brief bursts of heavy rainfall. It’s because a hotter ambiance can maintain extra moisture for an extended length, say scientists
The record-breaking rainfall in Dubai this week has left the world puzzled. Located throughout the Arabian Desert, one of many fastest-growing cities identified for its hovering skyscrapers and opulent infrastructure has been dropped at its knees by torrential rains which have triggered disastrous floods.
In line with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Nationwide Meteorology Centre, the town recorded a yr and a half’s rain in just some hours. Town of Al Ain acquired 254 mm in lower than 24 hours on Tuesday — the best ever for the reason that information started.
The meteorologists say the rainfall was triggered by a high-intensity storm passing over the area – these programs originate within the Mediterranean Sea and transfer eastwards. Nonetheless, this time, it unusually prolonged far to the south.
INTENSE STORM FUELLED BY GLOBAL WARMING?
“There was a mid-latitude westerly trough from the Mediterranean Sea which grew to become so robust, that it additionally prolonged southwards in direction of the UAE. Usually, it impacts the higher reaches of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Himachal, and Uttarakhand even nearer to Tibet, nevertheless it went unusually far to the south. So the rainfall in Dubai was preceded by flooding in Oman and adjoining Saudi Arabia,” mentioned Dr KJ Ramesh, former chief of the India Meteorological Division (IMD).
The storm was additional fuelled by further moisture from the Arabian Sea concurrently giving excessive rainfall over Bahrain and Qatar.
However it’s clearly not a one-off incident. Excessive climate occasions, particularly brief bursts of torrential rain, have intensified globally resulting in disastrous floods.
Large quantities of greenhouse emissions pumped into the ambiance by human-led actions have raised international temperatures, making the world over 1.1℃ hotter already.
“No matter would be the set off, it’s sure that international warming has intensified heavy rainfall occasions. Although the general variety of wet days is much less, the quantity of rainfall on these days has elevated considerably. It’s because a hotter ambiance can maintain extra moisture, and maintain robust, deep clouds for an extended length which ends up in a sudden downpour,” added the senior atmospheric scientist.
CLOUD SEEDING GONE WRONG?
Specialists have additionally addressed the widespread debate over whether or not the prevailing rainfall occasion was inadvertently exacerbated by synthetic cloud seeding. It is a scientific methodology of modifying the climate by dispersing giant salt particles into convective clouds by means of an plane to extend the general precipitation. The UAE’s Nationwide Centre of Meteorology was one of many first within the Arabian Gulf area to make use of cloud seeding and has been utilizing it for greater than a decade to incrementally enhance rainfall. That is executed utilizing a personal airplane equipped by particular salt flares manufactured to suit with the character of the bodily and chemical properties of the clouds that type within the UAE.
In line with Professor Sachchida Nand Tripathi, from the division of civil engineering at IIT Kanpur, who has additionally been related to cloud seeding experiments in India, it’s extremely unlikely that the rainfall was triggered by such an train. One of many causes is that synthetic seeding is completed through the early phases of cloud improvement. But when a storm is well-developed, seeding is normally not really helpful.
“Globally, there’s a basic consensus amongst scientific companies that cloud seeding can carry a few 15 to 25% enhance in rainfall. So if we go by this knowledge, it will have nonetheless rained closely in Dubai. So, it’s extremely unlikely that the occasion might be attributed to seeding,” mentioned Prof Tripathi. “Furthermore, the target of synthetic seeding is to manually alter the pure improvement of the cloud to boost precipitation. Many instances we see in arid and semi-arid areas that clouds type, however they don’t result in sufficient rain, so this expertise could be useful.”
A number of states in India together with Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have additionally experimented with this expertise for inducing rain in semi-arid areas.
Lately, the Indian Institute of Know-how (IIT) Kanpur additionally accomplished trials utilizing its seeding tools and a fully-equipped plane, and is planning to increase it quickly.
RISE IN EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS GLOBALLY
The depth of rainfall in Dubai has been so excessive that it has overwhelmed the desert metropolis, leaving its present drainage system struggling to manage. The web has been abuzz with movies of automobiles floating alongside the roadsides, flooded runways, and submerged buildings throughout the town.
The science is evident. The human-induced local weather change is ready to make such excessive climate occasions extra intense, frequent, and disastrous within the close to future. In line with specialists, the emphasis ought to now be on doing a structural audit of the lifeline infrastructure and making it extra resilient to face such occasions.
