‘Temperature increases by 1 degree Celsius on average, frequent cloudbursts, flash floods, water shortage among changes recorded due to changing weather patterens’
Srinagar, Dec 23: Unlike 80’s and 90’s, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed disturbances with regard to the precipitation and also the temperature has recorded an increase by around one degree Celsius.
Sharing the details with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), an Independent Weather Forecaster, Faizan Arif, said that global warming has brought some minor changes in the weather conditions comparatively from the 90’s and 80’s.
He said that in the average scale, the temperature has recorded an increase by one per cent in Srinagar at present comparatively from the past. He also added that the frequency of precipitation has changed.
“Jammu and Kashmir would receive rain or snowfall from time to time, but now the weather conditions have changed. For example, most of the days remain dry while the excess or normal precipitation for the month is occurring on a single day,” he said.
He added that such a situation is the outcome of global warming, which has disturbed the atmosphere. The frequent cloudbursts, flash floods, water shortage, reduction in glaciers, disturbance in ecosystem and wildlife as well, he said.
With the changes in weather conditions, Jammu and Kashmir has been witnessing an increase in a number of extreme events from the past 10 years, he said, adding that massive flood in 2014, river Jhelum crossing the flood declaration mark five times in 2015, two dozen cloudbursts in Kashmir valley in 2015, cloudbursts at Kishtwar and Amarnath Cave Sonamarg in 2021 and 2022, respectively, extreme snow and rain spells in 2021 when the south Kashmir plains were buried under up to five feet of snow within a period of three days, untimely heavy November snowfall in 2018 and 2019, October snowfall in south Kashmir plains in 2021 and April snowfall in Kashmir plains in 2017, are a few of the extreme events that I have mentioned here.
“There have undoubtedly been many more. This agrees with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report ‘Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis’ – a 3,949-page report based on more than 14,000 scientific papers, written by 234 scientists, which states that extreme temperature events that used to occur once every 10 years are occurring 2.8 times more frequently nowadays, extreme precipitation events with 1.3 times more frequency and agricultural and ecological events with 1.7 times more frequency and their frequency will only increase as the temperature rises further,” he added—(KNO)
