LONDON: Heavy rain is raining in southwestern China as Pakistan calculate the damage of one of the worst floods the country has ever experienced, while Dallas, Texas, recovers from a 10-inch downpour in a single day last month.
Each of these heatwave-followed calamities caused by rain indicates that the local climate has been wildly fluctuating between two opposing extremes. However, excessive heat and rainfall are intimately associated and, according to scientists, are being exacerbated by climate change.
The Indian Ocean is thought to have warmed as a result of the scorching spring temperatures in South Asia, which reached 50 degrees Celsius.A third of Pakistan would have been submerged in water as a result of what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week referred to as “a monsoon on steroids” over Pakistan, which dumped more than three times as much rain as the 30-year normal for August.
Homes and crops have been destroyed, killing more than 1,100 people, and there are urgent appeals for assistance.Exactly how much of a role climate change may have had in this year’s floods may take weeks, if not months, to assess, but experts agree that it is supercharging extremes. Worldwide, heatwaves are becoming more frequent and stronger, which causes increased evaporation from the ocean and the land.
