2023 might well be the year that the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis hit home in India. Just this week, devastating landslides and rampaging rivers killed 70 people in Himachal Pradesh with another 13 people dead or missing in Uttarakhand. The downpour washed away vehicles and subsumed buildings into flood waters, smashing key road […]
Tag Archives: monsoon
07
Aug
Aug
After a wet July packed with extreme rainfall, the southwest monsoon is expected to enter a weak phase this week with poor showers in central and peninsular India, this newspaper reported on Monday. Experts warned the weak monsoon phase might stretch for up to two weeks with large variations in the rainfall pattern, and a […]
09
Jul
Jul
Will 2023 be the tipping point for the climate crisis, at least for its effects to hit home? Over the weekend, northwestern India, and especially the hill states, were pounded by sheets of torrential rain that washed away portions of a critical national highway, inundated neighbourhoods and caused landslides that cut off mountain cities and […]
26
Jun
Jun
In an era defined by the climate crisis, the monsoon continues to play tricks. After its sluggish progress up India’s western coast the past two weeks, the monsoon covered Mumbai and Delhi on the same day, marking the first time since 1961 when the annual rains arrived in the two megapolises 1,500km apart at the […]
12
Jun
Jun
The monsoon may have landed in India, but only just. And even before it could take hold, cyclone Biparjoy might scuttle it off-course. Last Thursday, the monsoon arrived over Kerala, seven days after it normally arrives in the southern state, even as scientists warned that the onset of the monsoon remained weak, adding to already […]
17
May
May
The first furrows on the brows of policymakers would have started forming this week after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced that the onset of the monsoon over Kerala will be delayed by at least three days. The error margin for this prediction is +/- 4 days, which means that the first signs of the […]
04
May
May
On Thursday morning, Delhi woke up to a blanket of fog enveloping the city, sending the mercury plunging to 15.8 degrees Celsius (°C), the lowest in 41 years. On Wednesday, it was nine degrees below the normal. On Tuesday, it was 11 degrees below the average in May. And on Monday, Delhi clocked a maximum […]