Global warming may explain India's extreme storm rise: study

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/sc_afp/indiaclimatewarming

Five Indian meteorologists studied the rise in frequency of extreme rainstorms -- those which deliver more than 100 millimeters (3.94 inches) in a day -- in central India over the past five decades.

While they said that average annual rainfall has generally gone unchanged, there was a 10 percent increase each decade in the number of heavy rainstorms (more than 100 millimeters a day) and a doubling over the five decades of very heavy storms (more than 150 millimeters a day).

They said further that the four largest storms in each June-September monsoon season have intensified on average by 10 percent in the 1950-2000 period.

While the scientists did not focus on the cause of the trend, they suggested that global warming could be a key factor.

The intensification of storms, they said, "is related to a trend in large-scale moisture availability, which is in turn due to a gradual warming of the sea surface temperature" in the tropical Indian Ocean during the monsoon season.