We have all heard tales of frogs, toads and fish raining from the heavens: these are rare events triggered by freak weather.

The world has seen some extraordinary winter conditions in both hemispheres over the past year: snow in Johannesburg last June and in Baghdad in January, Arctic sea ice returning with a vengeance after a record retreat last summer, paralyzing blizzards in China, and a sharp drop in the globe's average temperature. It is no wonder that some scientists, opinion writers, political operatives and other people who challenge warnings about dangerous human-caused global warming have jumped on this as a teachable moment. "Earth's

One of the biggest challenges in climate research is to arrive at reliable future projections.

Investments aimed at improving agricultural adaptation to climate change inevitably favor some crops and regions over others. An analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions was conducted to identify adaptation priorities, based on statistical crop models and climate projections for 2030 from 20 general circulation models.

Contrary to what it says in the song, the rain in Spain does not stay mainly in the plain. It falls mostly in the mountainous regions of Cantabria and Asturias. Ask meteorologists why, and they will explain that the prevailing winds pick up moisture over the Atlantic, and that when this moist air hits Spain's northern mountain ranges it is forced up to higher altitudes, where the moisture condenses to form clouds, and then rain. So far so good - except that it's only half an answer.

Extreme rainfall events today pose a serious threat to many populated and urbanized areas worldwide; an accurate estimate of frequency and distribution of these events can significantly aid policy planning and observation system design. We report here a first-ever high-resolution (10 KM) analysis of heavy rainfall episodes (defined as 24-hour rainfall exceeding 250 mm) over the Indian region.

Some teleconnections studies between the monsoon rainfall over four meteorological subdivisions namely, plains of west U.P., East U.P., Bihar Plains and Gangetic West Bengal, thus constituting an area of U.P., adjoining Bihar and West Bengal and different thickness anomaly and geopotential heights over several levels in the troposphere over India have been carried out to find some useful predictive parameters for the long range prediction of monsoon rainfall.

Southern Africa is a region facing multiple stressors, including chronic, recurrent food insecurity and persistent threats of famine. Climate information, including seasonal climate forecasts, has been heralded as a promising tool for early-warning systems and agricultural risk management in southern Africa. Nevertheless, there is concern that climate information, for example climate forecasts, are not realizing their potential value in the region.

Original Source

Intense rainfall often leads to floods and landslides in the Himalayan region even with rainfall amounts that are considered comparatively moderate over the plains; for example, ‘cloudbursts’, which are devastating convective phenomena producing sudden high-intensity rainfall (∼10 cm per hour) over a small area. Early prediction and warning of such severe local weather systems is crucial to mitigate societal impact arising from the accompanying flash floods. We examine a cloudburst event in the Himalayan region at Shillagarh village in the early hours of 16 July 2003.

Climatic changes, droughts, floods, heat/cold waves, pests, diseases and poverty dynamics is a complex phenomenon demanding multidisciplinary management of early warning systems, risk assessment, insurance and mitigation.

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