The Unavoidable Impact of Climate Change in Facilitating Extreme Weather Condition

ENVIRONMENT

Human activity has inflicted serious damages over the centuries. Civilization and industrialization required taking up steps which ultimately posed threat to the natural ways in which mother earth functions. Year after year, humankind has been damaging the environment in conscious and unconscious ways. The burning of fossil fuels to meet our various needs in terms of heat, transportation and electricity, leads to increase in Carbon Dioxide emission in the atmosphere.

Over the past century, the carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gas emission levels have increased in such a drastic manner that it has ultimately caused the temperature on our planet to rise. This steep escalation in temperature in the world is causing extreme weather conditions. Experts are of the say that humankind is short of time to dramatically reduce pollution in order to avoid devastating climate hazards.

Here are the various changes that extreme weather conditions are bringing about in the environment.

More scorching heat days

With the rise in global temperature, more areas are recording their hottest temperatures and the areas impacted by extreme heat are increasing all over the world. Places which previously used to be moderately warm are now seeing more days of scorching hotness.

The month of July for example saw many places in Assam record the most extreme temperatures in history. Guwahati of Assam, India witnessed a temperature of 38.4 degrees Celsius, on July 18, 2018, which is the highest recorded temperature till date. In the year 2022, Guwahati recorded the second highest temperature in 30 years, which is 38.1 degree Celsius.

By 2100, scientists are predicting hotter temperatures and more frequent and intense heat waves.

Extreme heat conditions are also increasing the demand for air conditioning. This in turn is fueling carbon polluting and stressing our energy system, which can lead to blackouts. Furthermore, it poses serious health threat to people who are most vulnerable.

Expansion in the water bodies causing floods

Temperature increase is warming all the water bodies. Moreover it is also expanding as the glaciers and ice caps are melting at a very fast rate. This is adding more water to the world's oceans.

Reports state that, the average global sea level has increased about eight times in the last one and a half century.

The Atlantic coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico are presently experiencing some of the highest sea level rises in the entire world. This combined with the ever increasing record rainfall, has led to catastrophic flooding.

Increasing drought conditions

It is obvious that high temperatures will suck up more water, thus causing drier conditions. When temperatures rise, the moisture evaporates from the various water bodies and soil.

Droughts across the world have become more severe in the recent years and are lasting longer than usual. The dubious credit for which goes to climate change.

The American West also experienced one of the worst mega droughts in recent times, more precisely in the past 1,200 years. The region experienced extreme and exceptional drought conditions in recent times.

Wildfires

The recent years have also witnessed more wildfires. Wildfires around the world are growing in size, are becoming more ferocious and gaining speed.

California is starting to look like a breeding ground for meteorological turmoil in the recent years. The dry, hot conditions across the state and the seasonal high winds are causing caused destructive wildfires to grow and spread at an unexpected rate.

The year 2022 has seen major wildfires in many parts of the globe. California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, Texas are some such places which experienced severe wildfires.

As of 21 September 2022, in California alone, a total of 6,473 fires have been recorded, totaling an area of approximately 365,140 acres.

Increase in precipitation

The presence of warmer air increases evaporation. Our atmosphere thus possesses an increasing amount of water vapour, which can cause storms to swoop down and transform into rain or snow.

With the increase in temperatures, as dry areas will get even drier, areas across the world which have historically aligned to heavy precipitation, will continue to get wetter in these conditions.

Rainfall in various areas across the world is noting increase in rainfall. Many places are seeing an increase in the average rainfall.

Hurricanes

The rise in global temperature has led to more hurricanes. The reason behind is that hurricanes attract energy from warm ocean water.

The month of September saw some severe hurricanes in Florida and Puerto Rico.

Hurricane Fiona caused rain whose levels were not predicted prior to the incident and consequently caused catastrophic damage. This affected residents of Puerto Rico as they had to go without any electricity or drinking water for a long period of time.

Following it was the Hurricane Ian, which rapidly intensified itself and proceeded towards the Florida coast. Residents in the area did not have any time to be prepared. Scientists are of the view that this is not going to stop, but in fact storms will become stronger as the climate warms more. Furthermore these storms will also intensify faster.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, we're looking towards another "above average" hurricane season in 2022 — the seventh in a row.

Extreme Winters

Just because climate change is raising average global temperatures, it doesn't put an end to winters. Winters are getting milder and becoming short overall. However, the recent winters are causing intense snowstorms and record-breaking frost.

It may sound ironic, but climate change can actually contribute to more extreme winter conditions. The warming atmosphere ultimately traps more water vapour as the year goes on. Ultimately, this precipitation leads to heavier snowfall when the temperatures decrease.

The Arctic which is rapidly warming is another factor which is making the jet stream weak and causing disruptions of the polar vortex. The polar vortex refers to bands of wind and low air pressure near the North Pole. This usually locks cold air over Arctic. When these bands break down, icy air can escape to the south by disguising as freezing winters.

The year 2021, saw some devastating snowstorms in Texas, which knocked out power for nearly 4.5 million homes. Extreme icy weather conditions and heating demands compromised much of the region's power supply. About 100 people died and the storms caused damage of about $295 billion.

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