Human activities like using fossil fuels have intensified extreme global rainfall as well as snowfall. The change has occurred over the past few decades. Recent research has provided data and facts backing this statement.
Previous studies had attributed long-term weather changes and extreme events in particular areas to climate change. However, assessing them globally was much more difficult. A new method was used to study the records of rainfall in as many areas as possible. The study concluded that climate change brought by humans was the cause behind the extreme rainfall in every area.
Scientists have warned that increasing global temperature certainly will result in more global rainfall. This is due to warm air holding more atmospheric water vapor, giving rise to more storms. In the past, this kind of study needed observations over a long period. But long-time records of rainfall are hard to get.
So this study made use of neural networks, artificially created. The machine was taught to detect patterns of extreme rainfall in records of weather. The conclusion is that human activity is the main cause of intensified global rainfall. The influence of humans was apparent in widely differing weather data as well. This was all published on 6th July 2021 in the Nature Communications journal.
The Importance Of The Global Rainfall Study
Understanding the influence of humans on extreme global rainfall will help us interpret today’s events of climate change. It will also go a long way in preparing cities and infrastructure for a world that is changing drastically.
Over the past few years, headlines talking about devastating flooding caused by extreme rainfall are common. Historically, such events are supposed to be extremely rare. Two examples are the hurricane season of 2017 in Puerto Rico, Texas, and Florida; and the 2017 extreme monsoonal rainfall in Bangladesh and India.
Read: Tropical Storm Elsa Forms Over Atlantic: The Latest Result Of Climate Change
More alarmingly, the results suggest that if the planet continues warming, these extreme rainfall events are only going to get more intense. Currently, the temperatures are projected to rise through this century. But our choices now can determine whether it will be a rise by 1 degree or 4 degrees by the 2021 end.
