Monsoon revival sees rise in extreme rainfall events

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Rainfall amid the monsoon’s revival since mid-July 2021 has seen significant variation across the country.

GS-I: Geography (Climatology, Important geophysical phenomena), GS-III: Environment and Ecology (Climate Change and its Impact)

Several parts of the western Konkan coast and the southern peninsula were seeing instances of extreme rainfall with the ‘Southern Peninsula’ region seeing almost 30% more rain than normal during the June-July period.
Recently, Mahabaleshwar in western Maharashtra reported over 60cm of rainfall in just one day which “exceeded its all-time record” according to the IMD.
Rainfall, the IMD said the torrential rains over the Konkan coast was likely to continue for the rest of the week due to the position of the monsoon trough.
July and August are the most important monsoon months contributing over two-third of the seasonal rainfall and central India as well as the south Peninsula are expected to see most of the rainfall during this interim.
However, climate scientists have warned that monsoon patterns, overall have been changing.

The frequency and strength of cyclones over the Arabian Sea has increased in the last two decades.
There is a 52% increase in the frequency of cyclones over Arabian Sea from 2001-2019 and 8% decrease over Bay of Bengal compared to 1982-2002, when historically most cyclones have been in Bay of Bengal, according to a study
Even the duration of these cyclones has increased by 80%. More cyclones were bringing in more moisture from the Arabian Sea and contributing to extreme rainfall events.

-Source: The Hindu