Warming Of Indian Ocean Has Created “Flying Rivers”
Nearly 10,216 people lost their lives in hydro-meteorological disasters which hit India over the past five years
PIC COURTESY : INDIA NARRATIVE
This year a surge in extreme weather events in India- floods, heavy rains, heat waves and landslides are testing the country’s resilience and resources. Floods are not uncommon in South Asia – during monsoon season, when the region receives most of its rainfall. But climate change has made them more erratic, with massive rainfall in a short span of time followed by prolonged periods of dryness.
But in India, meteorologists are saying that the warming of the Indian Ocean has created “flying rivers” that are influencing monsoon rains between June and September. The flying river is a movement of large quantities of water through evaporation in the atmosphere from the Oceans. Invisible ribbons of water vapour are born in warm oceans as seawater evaporates. The water vapour forms a band or a column in the lower part of the atmosphere which moves from the tropics to the cooler latitudes and comes down as rain.
Global warming has made these atmospheric rivers longer, wider and more intense, causing storms & flooding. A study published in journal Science Direct has predicted that between 2020 and 2100, the Indian Ocean is experiencing unprecedented and accelerated warming, at a rate of 1.7-3.8 degrees Celsius per century.
This warming of the Indian Ocean at a fast rate is resulting in higher evaporation of water vapours from its surface. These long columns of water vapours, known as flying rivers can travel long distances and dump heavy rains all of a sudden. This Intense rainfall can produce flooding and land slides.
Heating of the Indian Ocean due to global warming, along with the heat accumulated in the first 2,000 metres below the surface, has significant repercussions for the southwest monsoon season, which provides about 70 per cent of India’s annual rainfall and also affects rainfall patterns in other South Asian countries. Nearly 10,216 people lost their lives in hydro-meteorological disasters which hit India over the past five years, the government told Parliament in the aftermath of catastrophic landslides in Kerala and multiple cloudbursts in Himachal Pradesh.
