East Africa is stalked by famine once more despite scientists' early warnings of disaster. Can the lessons be learned?

As part of our environmental analysis of the Bharathapuzha river basin, southern India, we examined the trend of temperature in the basin for a period of 36 years (1969–2005). It shows an overall upward trend in annual and daily temperatures. The temperature during winter, and the southwest (SW)
and northeast (NE) monsoon also showed significant increase.

Chris Funk explains how his group last year forecast the drought in Somalia that is now turning into famine — and how that warning wasn't enough.

Hourly rainfall data recorded at 72 Self Recording Raingauge Stations (SRRG) for the period 1969–2006 are utilized to study the characteristic features of hourly rainfall and diurnal variations of rainfall in India. Temporal changes in the short duration (less than 12 h) rainfall extremes are examined. Time distribution of a heavy rain spell of 24 h duration, which is an important component in water resources management and flood control studies, is analysed.

About half of the global gas and particle emissions to the atmosphere resulting from the burning of biomass originate from sub-Saharan Africa. There are four principal pathways: wildfires, the use of biomass fuels for energy, burning associated with deforestation and the burning of agricultural residues.

Extremes of weather and climate can have devastating effects on human society and the environment. Understanding past changes in the characteristics of such events, including recent increases in the intensity of heavy precipitation events over a large part of the Northern Hemisphere land area, is critical for reliable projections of future changes.

Folk people of Tripura, a small state of Northeast India, rely on their own traditional knowledge of phenological indicators for predicting the weather, to help plan their agroforestry activities and disaster prevention. One such prediction relates to the phenology of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis L., night flowering jasmine which helps them to forecast the onset of heavy rainfall.

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