Thursday, September 11, 2014

Monsoon Floods Increase in India and Pakistan



September 3rd was the start of a series of monsoon floods which ended the lives of 420 people along the border of India and Pakistan. The flooding was triggered by the twelve inch monsoon rainfall which took over the mountainous region and trapped thousands of the region's citizens in its waters. Pakistan has just recently been experiencing some of its worse floods since Pakistani history. The worst flooding occurred in 2010 when about a fifth of the country was killed and severe damages caused the country 9.5 billion dollars. Pakistan's increase in flooding has occurred mostly because of the country's poor flood control and ineffective government policies.

Without a doubt, global warming has played a role in the increase of floods around the world. A warmer climate means that heavier rainfall is inevitable. Jeff Masters states that the reason for this is because "...water vapor can evaporate into a warmer atmosphere, increasing the chances of record heavy downpours." Research shows that there has been a double increase of heavy rainfall in India since the 1950's. As long as global warming is a reoccurring phenomena, we can expect to continue to see an increase in the number of disastrous monsoon floods as well as the number of deaths caused by this. However, what is most concerning is the drought that India will experience. Masters explains that during the El Nino years, monsoon rains are not expected but severe droughts are. As of now, it is uncertain of what the future might bring to India but there isn't a doubt that some degree of severe weather may occur throughout the upcoming years.

Link: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2791

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