Experts blame climate change for intense rains in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: The unseasonal downpours and hailstorms that wreaked havoc in the state over the last week, disrupting normalcy and damaging standing crops, were attributed to factors such as weather systems and cyclonic circulations.

Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather, told Deccan Chronicle that there was a series of five weather systems in April, which was unusual because their intensity and frequency start to decline in April.

“Additionally, new, fresh disturbances are developing over the Western Himalayas, and individual cyclonic circulations are also in progress,” he informed.

Further, a north-south ‘trough’ has been persisting for several days, sometimes from Vidarbha or eastern Madhya Pradesh to south Tamil Nadu, passing over Telangana, he explained. “As a result, rain activities are particularly severe in Telangana,” he added.

The trough was likely to oscillate and bring intense rains in the next two days in the state. The intensity of hailstorms was observed to be very high across the country during March and April.

"As a result of climate change, intense weather events are on the rise, and unpredictable weather has become the norm. Over Northwest India, hail storms are increasing while dust storms are decreasing. Hailstorms were not common in central and southern India, but these regions are also experiencing such weather conditions," Palwat added.

Weather activities are expected to decrease in the following two days, according to experts, but there will be on and off rains throughout the month of May, with maximum temperatures ranging between normal and below normal.

Climate change and the urban heat island effect, according to environmentalist Sai Bhaskar Reddy Nakka, are two significant factors of the unexpected rains in the state, particularly in urban areas.

“These summer rains are convection current related thunder showers. Hailstorms occur as the convection currents push the clouds too high, when the ground is extremely heated. Pollution and dust are causing heavy rains in the urban phenomenon known as the heat island effect. It occurs when the average temperature in the urban region is higher than in the peri-urban and rural areas, which is mostly responsible for the incessant and intense rains in the city,” explained Bhaskar Reddy.

However, such extreme and unexpected weather conditions would become more common in the future, experts warned.

Bhaskar Reddy informed that it was critical to reduce carbon footprints, conserve water bodies, adopt methods to lessen greenhouse effects, and grow useful trees in order to mitigate urban heat.