What's Heating Up: Freak Weather

Indian monsoon will be drier: According to latest reports, Monsoon rains might collapse about every fifth year between 2150 and 2200, which means it would rain 40-70% below normal levels.

Kolkata will be desert like: In a study commissioned by WWF, it has been highlighted that in less than 20 years, Kolkata may be like a desert and by 2029, the city of joy will get so hot that it would be impossible to step out during the day.

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Delhi, a furnace city: A study by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has discloed that the surface temperature the capital has increased by 2-3 degrees Celsius since 1998 and the difference in the temperature of urban and rural areas now stands at 5-7 degrees. The study has considered the data for the last 15 years.

Mumbai getting hotter: The study by TERI that hinted towards the increase in temperature of New Delhi also said that the increaing density of population in the financial capital, nearly 20,925 per square kms, is finally taking its toll on the environment. The temperature in Mumbai over the last land surface temperatures for Mumbai and surrounding areas for the years 1998 and 2011. It was found that the temperatures across Mumbai have also risen by 2-3 degrees since 1998.

Will there be no ice in J&K: A new study authored by Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi of National Environment Fellow at the Indian Institute of Science projects that parts of Jammu and Kashmir will witness the maximum rise in the temperature in the country by 2080s. While the temperature else where would rise by 4.8 degrees, J&K would warm-up by 8 degrees.

Indore at 50 degrees: Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) project in one of its recent survey said that Indore which currently sees mercury rise to a maximum level of 42 degrees will witness a rise of 2 degree Celsius by 2030, and 8 degree celcius by 2080. Erratic rainfall and floods have also been indicated.

Glass building making Bangalore hotter: While there is no doubt that silicon valley of India is becoming a hotter place to live because of the global warming, it's not just the sun that needs to be blamed. Chandrashekhar Hariharan, CEO, Biodiversity Conservation India Limited recently said that glass building that unlike concrete building reflect the heat back to the atmophere are making the city hotter.

Water scarcity in Cherrapunji: The wettest place on the planet has been witnessing lower levels of rainfall everyyear, and in 2010 it lost the tag of being the town with heaviest rainfall to a nearby village known as Mawsynram. From 2005 till 2010, the town received 20 per cent lesser rainfall.

5 freak weather incidents

The chiller of the United States of America, the village of Pellston in Michigan, that once registered -47 °C in 1933, and usually is a chilling place registered a temperature above 29 °C on March 22. The previous record for this day was 12 degrees lesser.

In over 500 years, the European summer of 2003 was the hottest summer. The extreme fluctuation caused by the heatwaves led to health epidemics in the continent, which when combined with drought led to a crop shortfall in certain areas, and killed 70,000 people.

In the summer of 2010, heat waves struck some parts of Russia killing 55,000 people and caused $15 billion in damage. The first ever heatwaves of this magnitude was attributed to both natural and manmade causes.

During the months of July and August 2010 in Pakistan, much higher than normal monsoons led to massive flooding in the country, killing over 2000 peopls and rendering two crore people homeless. In various analysis of the rain storm, it was established that Pakistan has now been receiving unusually higher rainfall than earlier. The rainstorms came back to haunt the country last year.

Europe once again got to taste extreme unexpection weather in February this year when unexpected icy weather gripped the continent killing hundreds due to frostbite and hypothermia. With no signs of the bitter dip in retreading, 22 countries had to post warnings for extreme cold temperatures and accumulating snow. While Ukraine was the worst affected country, ancient monuments in Rome were reported to have started criumbling due to the dip and Libya's capital Tripoli, which is near Sahara dessert, was neck deep in snow.

From the December 2012 issue of FHM India.