State of the Asia Climate Report 2021
- Recently the World Meteorological Organization has released the ‘State of the Climate in Asia, 2021’ report.
- This report has been prepared in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission. The report outlines the major factors responsible for extreme weather events in Asia.
- According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), extreme weather events are those phenomena that occur rarely in a particular place and at a particular time in a year.
Major factors responsible for extreme weather c ondition:
- El Nino- Southern Oscillation: It is a climate system. Under this, changes in water temperature are seen in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
Over a period of 3 – 7 years, surface waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean warm or cool by 1°C to 3°C from normal.
- Indian Ocean Dipole: It is the difference in sea surface temperature between the western Indian Ocean and the eastern Indian Ocean. Hence, it is called a dipole.
- Arctic Oscillation: It is a condition of changing the location of atmospheric pressure between the latitudes of the Arctic and the North Pacific and North Atlantic.
It affects the weather throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
- Asian Monsoon: It is a seasonal change in the direction of the prevailing winds. It is a major driver of climate change in South and East Asia.
- Atmospheric Rivers over Asia: These are long, narrow, shallow and temporary corridors of strong horizontal water vapor circulation.
Source – The Hindu
