Pakistan is experiencing its worst floods this century. More than one third of the country is under water. The extreme event has displaced 33 million people and killed more than 1200.
According to researchers, the catastrophe probably began with great heatwaves. In April and May, temperatures soared above 40 C. The city of Jacobabad had a temperature of 51 C. They were the worst in the world. According to the country's former minister for climate change, Pakistan was the hottest place on the planet.
The warmer air can hold more water. According to a water resources engineer at the Global Change Impact Studies Centre in Islamabad, the extreme temperatures will probably result in above normal levels of rain during the country's monsoon season.
According to Athar Hussain, a climate scientist at COMSATS University Islamabad, the intense heat caused glaciers in the northern mountainous region to melt. The largest river in Pakistan runs from the north to the south, feeding towns, cities and large swathes of agricultural land. It isn't clear how much excess glacier melt has flowed into rivers this year, but Hashmi noticed high flows and muddy water in the Hunza River. The mud suggests that there has been rapid melting. A dangerous rush of water has been released by several glaciers that burst through the ice that normally restrains them.
Heavy rain was brought to Pakistan's coastal provinces as early as June due to a depression in the Arabian Sea. Large-scale depression systems rarely arrive there.
Andrew King, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne, Australia, says that these unusual features were worsened by the early arrival of the monsoon on June 30th.
Pakistan has received three times its average annual rain for the monsoon period so far. The southern provinces have gotten more money than the average. The flooding is done.
Much of the water is nowhere to be found. More than a million houses have been destroyed. According to Aslam, a lake has formed in the province and more water will pour into it. It is not over.
According to King, some weather agencies have predicted that the La Nia climate event will continue until the end of the year. It probably is playing a role in enhancing the rain.
The human-caused global warming could be making the weather worse. Climate models show that a warmer world will cause more intense rain. Pakistan's temperatures rose by more than the global average over the course of 30 years.
Poor disaster management, political instability, and unregulated urban development are some of the factors that have added to the destruction. There is a lack of drainage and storage infrastructure as well as a large number of people living in flood zones. These are governance issues, but they are small compared to the level of tragedy that we are seeing.
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The article was published on September 2nd, 2022.
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