Floods in the mountain kingdom of Nepal? It sounds unlikely, but Nepal has a low-lying region called Terai, and much of it has been submerged in the past week following intense rains during the south Asian monsoon. Even more surprisingly, Nepal is blaming its downstream neighbour, India, for the floods.

Farmers have natural indicators to predict rainfall. And researchers of Gujarat Agricultural University in an experiment found that farmers are more often than not proved correct. In an initiative,

The onset of the monsoon is the crucial determinant for majority of farmers in rainfed areas of the country. With no access to irrigation or state support they have developed complex yet fascinating

A model is developed to understand the relationship between satellite-derived NDVI and rainfall data in a large tropical catchment. Two Fourier-based modeling techniques with a seasonal component, viz. a seasonal model (SM) and a linear perturbation model (LPM) are tested, and their performance in reproducing the observed NDVI was evaluated. The methodology makes use of 15 years of 10-day composite time series data of rainfall and NDVI, which is estimated from NOAA-AVHRR data, both of which constitute concurrent data from 1982-96.

Analysis of water balance for Upper Kolab catchment was done according to Thornthwaite book keeping technique for six stations located within the catchment and for the entire catchment for the normal climatic year. On annual basis the catchment has a water need, rainfall, actual evapotranspiration, water surplus and water deficit of 1703.7 mm, 1479.82 mm, 1003.13 mm, 476.69 mm and 700.56 mm respectively. There is a water surplus from July to October and water deficit from November to May. The surplus months of June and part of July contribute to recharge the soil moisture deficit.

Climate models and satellite observations both indicate that the total amount of water in the atmosphere will increase at a rate of 7% per kelvin of surface warming. However, the climate models predict that global precipitation will increase at a much slower rate of 1 to 3% per kelvin. A recent analysis of satellite observations does not support this prediction of a muted response of precipitation to global warming. Rather, the observations suggest that precipitation and total atmospheric water have increased at about the same rate over the past two decades.

The relationship between climate change and cities is complex. City-based activities contribute significant amounts of greenhouse gases and, simultaneously, are often more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Dhaka is now the world's eighth largest city and a significant proportion of Bangladesh's greenhouse gases are generated there although, relative to total emissions worldwide, the contribution is negligible.