Automobiles stand in flood water attributable to 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 quick bursts of heavy rainfall. It’s because a hotter environment can maintain extra moisture for an extended period, say scientists
The record-breaking rainfall in Dubai this week has left the world puzzled. Located inside 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 response to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Nationwide Meteorology Centre, 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 very 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 techniques originate within the Mediterranean Sea and transfer eastwards. Nevertheless, 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 turned 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, however 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 quick bursts of torrential rain, have intensified globally resulting in disastrous floods.
Huge quantities of greenhouse emissions pumped into the environment by human-led actions have raised international temperatures, making the world over 1.1℃ hotter already.
“No matter could 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 environment can maintain extra moisture, and maintain robust, deep clouds for an extended period which results 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 massive salt particles into convective clouds by way 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 performed 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 response to 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 in the course of the early phases of cloud growth. But when a storm is well-developed, seeding is often not really helpful.
“Globally, there’s a basic consensus amongst scientific businesses 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 could possibly be attributed to seeding,” mentioned Prof Tripathi. “Furthermore, the target of synthetic seeding is to manually alter the pure growth 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 know-how will be useful.”
A number of states in India together with Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have additionally experimented with this know-how for inducing rain in semi-arid areas.
Not too long ago, the Indian Institute of Know-how (IIT) Kanpur additionally accomplished trials utilizing its seeding gear 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 current drainage system struggling to manage. The web has been abuzz with movies of vehicles floating alongside the roadsides, flooded runways, and submerged buildings throughout town.
The science is obvious. The human-induced local weather change is about to make such excessive climate occasions extra intense, frequent, and disastrous within the close to future. In response to 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.
