Downpours of torrential rain more frequent with global warming
Full story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190603132612.htm
The number of extreme downpours increased steadily between 1964 and 2013
-- a period when global warming also intensified, according to new
research.
The frequency of downpours of heavy rain -- which can lead to flash
floods, devastation, and outbreaks of waterborne disease -- has
increased across the globe in the past 50 years, research led by the
Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan
(USask) has found.
The number of extreme downpours increased steadily between 1964 and 2013
-- a period when global warming also intensified, according to research
published in the journal Water Resources Research.
The frequency of 'extreme precipitation events' increased in parts of
Canada, most of Europe, the Midwest and northeast region of the U.S.,
northern Australia, western Russia and parts of China, (see maps and
graphics).
"By introducing a new approach to analyzing extremes, using thousands of
rain records, we reveal a clear increase in the frequency extreme rain
events over the recent 50 years when global warming accelerated," said
Simon Papalexiou, a hydro-climatologist in USask's College of
Engineering, and an expert in hydroclimatic extremes and random processes.
Papalexiou, who led the research, added: "This upward trend is highly
unlikely to be explained by natural climatic variability. The
probability of this happening is less than 0.3 per cent under the model
assumptions used."
The USask study of over 8,700 daily rain records from 100,000 stations
monitoring rain worldwide found the frequency of torrential rain between
1964 and 2013 increased as the decades progressed.
Between 2004 and 2013, there were seven per cent more extreme bouts of
heavy rain overall than expected globally. In Europe and Asia, there
were 8.6 per cent more 'extreme rain events' overall, during this decade.
Global warming can lead to increased precipitation because more heat in
the atmosphere leads to more atmospheric water which, in turn, leads to
rain.
Torrents of rain not only lead to flooding, but can threaten public
health, overwhelming sewage treatment plants and increasing microbial
contaminants of water. More than half a million deaths were caused by
rain-induced floods between 1980 and 2009.
Heavy rain can also cause landslides, damage crops, collapse buildings
and bridges, wreck homes, and lead to chaos on roads and to transport,
with huge financial losses.
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