Climate change: Pune receives July-like rains in October

Data from India Meteorological Department suggests changing climatic patterns are pushing monsoon peak in Pune from July-August to October

PUNE With rainfall activity continuing and its intensity too increasing this month in Pune, data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) suggests that changing climatic patterns are pushing monsoon peak from July-August to October

Data from India Meteorological Department suggests changing climatic patterns are pushing monsoon peak in Pune from July-August to October. (HT FILE)

Since 2010, there have been four occasions in October when Pune has reported more than 100 mm rainfall within 24 hours, the latest being Monday evening when rains battered Pune and caused waterlogging at many places.

Shivajinagar weather station, representative of Pune, received 105mm rainfall between 10 pm on Monday and 5:30 am on Tuesday of which 81mm rainfall was reported within two hours between 9:30 pm to 11:30 pm the previous night.

However, in June, July, August and September such intense and heavy rainfall spells were not observed.

As per the data furnished by IMD, the highest rainfall during the past 100 years was in 2010, when the city received as much as 181.1mm of rainfall. During the past decade, 112.1 mm of rainfall was reported in 2020. After that 105.1 mm was reported in 2011 and 101.3 mm was reported in 2017. This year on Monday, the city reported 105 mm of rainfall in 24 hours.

As per IMD, June, July, August and September are months where most rainfall is reported as these are monsoon months. However, except for September 2018, no other month has reported 100 mm or more rainfall in 24 hours since 1996. This also indicates that intense rainfall spells for October have increased in this time period whereas overall rainfall has increased for monsoon months.

Pulak Guhathakurta, head of climate division of IMD Pune, said that the intense rainfall events have increased over the years due to climate change.

“We can see as the climate is changing, there is a decrease in wet days as well as intense rainfall events. We now see that more rainfall is reported in less time period. Because of this, there is a disruption of normal life. Urbanisation has led to increasing incidents of waterlogging,” said Guhathakurta.

Rainfall continued on Tuesday in Pune city however, the downpour was not much. According to the weather department, Shivajinagar reported 7.2 mm, Pashan reported 4.4 mm, Lohegaon and Magarpatta reported 3 mm and Lavale reported 1 mm rainfall.

Anupam Kashyapi, head of weather forecasting department at IMD Pune, said that the rainfall activity over Pune will be light till October 22.

“Rainfall intensity has reduced and will not be only light to very light with partly cloudy skies over the city till October 22,” said Kashyapi.