Climate report predicts hotter, rainier days

Key Facts:-

• India’s first-ever national forecast on the impact of global warming on the subcontinent in the coming century, expects annual rainfall to increase, along with more severe cyclones and paradoxically more droughts. 
• These projections, based on a climate forecasting model developed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, will be part of the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), expected to be ready in 2022
• From 1986-­2015, the hottest day and coldest night have warmed 0.63°C and 0.4°C, respectively. By the end of the 21st century, the report says, these temperatures are projected to rise by approximately 4.7°C and 5.5°C, respectively, relative to the corresponding temperatures in 1976­2005. This under a hypothetical scenario where no steps are taken to curb global greenhouse gas emissions or the RCP8.5 as it is called. 
• Currently, countries have signed an agreement to reduce emissions to restrict global temperature rise by the end of the century to less than 2°C.
• The frequencies of future warm days and warm nights are projected to increase by 55% and 70%, respectively, relative to the reference period of 1976­2005. Summer heatwaves over India are projected to be three to four times higher by the end of the 21st century.
• The projected rapid changes in India’s climate will place increasing stress on the country’s natural ecosystems, agricultural output, and freshwater resources, the report says.
• An observed change of 0.7°C in average temperatures over India, had already registered a spike in extreme weather events over the region

Source: The Hindu