Extreme rainfall not yet attributed to global warming: Government

Extreme rainfall in places, including Uttarkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, are highly "localised" and are part of natural variability of monsoon system, and their attribution to global warming is yet to be established, the government said on Tuesday.

"Extreme rainfall events that occurred at some isolated places (heavy rainfall over Mumbai, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Kashmir, etc) are highly localised and are part of the natural variability of the Indian monsoon system."Although some recent studies hint at an increasing frequency and intensity of extremes in rainfall during the past 40-50 years, their attribution to global warming is yet to be established," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. He said that as per information supplied by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, there is "no conclusive" evidence to attribute all observed weather and climate variability to the increased concentrations of Green House Gases (GHG) and associated global warming.Javadekar said that gradual increasing trend of surface temperature across the globe is found to be in line with rise of GHGs over the last few decades. "Daily mean temperature over the country is found to be increasing more or less at the same time as the global mean (0.63 degrees Celsius since 1901)."Spatial pattern of the trends in the mean annual temperature shows significant positive (increasing) trend over most parts of the country except over parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar where significant negative (decreasing) trends were observed," he said.