News Navigator: Is global warming causing more rain disasters in Japan?
July 24, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
The Tenjo River in Hiroshima Prefecture is seen flooding surrounding areas following torrential rains, in this photo taken from a Mainichi Shimbun helicopter on July 8, 2021. (Mainichi) Heavy rains have wreaked havoc here in Japan as well as abroad in 2021, as they have many times in recent years. The Mainichi Shimbun answers some common questions readers may have about the torrential rains that have become more frequent in the past decade or so. Question: Is the number of heavy rain events increasing? Answer: According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), in the 10 years since 2011, the country saw an annual average of 334 torrential rain events in which rainfall of at least 50 millimeters per hour, or waterfall-like rain, was recorded. This is 1.5 times the average recorded between 1976 and 1985, which was roughly 226 times a year. Experts have pointed ou
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Credit: NIES
Equatorial Asia, which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and surrounding areas, experienced devastating biomass burning in 2015 due to the severe drought condition induced by the extreme El Niño and a positive anomaly of the Indian Ocean dipole. This biomass burning emitted a significant amount of carbon, mainly in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), into the atmosphere.
Equatorial Asia has very few ground-based stations that observe CO2 and other related atmospheric constitutents. Meanwhile, a few satellites could observe atmospheric CO2; however, their observations were less available and subject to errors due to cumulus cloulds typical in the tropics and smokes from the biomass burning.
National Institute for Environmental Studies
Equatorial Asia, which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and surrounding areas, experienced devastating biomass burning in 2015 due to the severe drought condition induced by the extreme El Niño and a positive anomaly of the Indian Ocean dipole. This biomass burning emitted a significant amount of carbon, mainly in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), into the atmosphere.
Equatorial Asia has very few ground-based stations that observe CO2 and other related atmospheric constitutents. Meanwhile, a few satellites could observe atmospheric CO2; however, their observations were less available and subject to errors due to cumulus cloulds typical in the tropics and smokes from the biomass burning.
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