Krishnamurthywarns that Chennai is now choking from the urban heat island phenomenon.
R.R. Krishnamurthy
Chennai: Chennaiites must be prepared to face summer heat waves during July too and this trend will continue next year also, warns Professor R.R. Krishnamurthy, head, department of applied geology & centre for environmental sciences, University of Madras. In a freewheeling chat, Krishnamurthy, who has been studying the climate resilience of Chennai for the past few years, warns that Chennai is now choking from the urban heat island phenomenon.
Q) Where do you see the weather of Chennai going from now onwards?
Chennai will witness more daily temperatures ranging above 40 degree Celsius due to micro climate change and urban city heat island phenomenon. This can be brought down only by adaptation and mediation essential to fight global warming.
Q) Long period average for July is around 35 Celsius but now Chennai is witnessing temperature ranging above 40 Celsius?
Krishnamurthy - This not unusual and the situation is due to the urban heat island phenomenon and the micro climate change that parts of Chennai is witnessing. Severe heat waves have been experienced earlier in India even during 1625 in Rajasthan, followed by Bihar, UP and Odisha between 1978 and 1999. But what Chennai is witnessing is a micro climate change due to global warming which even the scientific community is unable to quantify or predict to the point.
Q) How equipped are we in ascertaining the effects of micro climate change?
Krishnamurthy — We have just started recording the weather updates in India. Only in the last few years do we have documentations related to cities. In Japan, every city's rainfall and weather updates are documented on an hourly basis. A city is studied in detail when it comes to climate. We have a long way to go and this is the reason preventing us from forecast sudden showers within the city or a small region. We study weather and monsoon pattern for a larger region and there is a need for micro level forecast on an hourly basis as practiced in other developed nations.
Q) What is the challenge that stops climatologists from providing accurate updates on heat waves and sudden spells of rains despite advancement in weather related studies?
Weather is a vast area and will have global and local impact. We are good in tracking weather for a larger area. For instance, the forecast is that rarely heat waves have occurred in the preceding year of El-Nino effect and this means that the heat waves may not occur next year, i.e in 2016 summer for the Indian subcontinent. The important challenge in the fields of meteorology and climate change science is the accurate prediction and forecast of weather due to its complexity and there is a need to make frequent updates. Several urban centers are also behaving like "heat islands" and there is need to study more on micro-climate and its diurnal changes the sudden quick change in the weather for a more precise forecast.
Q) What solutions do you suggest to fight climate change? What is your take on massive afforestation projects?
Krishnamurthy - The scientific community is advocating two important options adaptation, which is inevitable and mitigation, which is essential. Due to advancement of climate forecast technology we will be having more accurate forecasts on temporal changes in climate in the coming years as being done in developed countries like USA, Japan. Greenery projects have not been scientifically proved, but they will have local impact and can reduce the maximum temperature of a region.
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