Heavy rains to become new normal

Hyderabad: What research had predicted about the weather seems to be coming true. Excess rainfall of a whopping 1000 per cent was witnessed in at least six districts of Telangana, including Hyderabad, in just one week this month.

In Andhra Pradesh, five districts received an excess rainfall of 1000 per cent during the same time frame. Meteorologists say that such intense rainfall events are very rare though researchers have predicted that intense rainfall events, pre and post monsoon, will become more common in the future while the average monsoon rainfall will reduce gradually over time.

In its expansive report released last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report had stated that the frequency of heavy rainfall events would increase at the expense of light rainfall events. However, the average rainfall would only marginally decrease though the number of dry days would rise.

Extremely heavy rainfall days with precipitation of more than 80 mm per day occur only about once in two years. But a study under the Sustainable Hyderabad project had predicted that such days of extremely heavy rainfall could go up by about 60 per cent by 2050.

The heavy rainfall in the second week of April this year corroborates these predictions. Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) meteorologist Mr M. Narsimha Rao also expressed surprise at the rains that lashed Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

“The kind of rains that the state witnessed in the last one week is very rare. Over 1000 per cent departure was noted in the normal and actual rainfall in six districts of Telangana between April 9 and 15,” Mr Rao said.