The devastatingfloodsthat occurred in the country between 1985 and 2020 during the summermonsoonseason were directly associated with Atmospheric Rivers, a phenomenon of a stream of water vapour moving in the sky
like a river flowing on the land, says a new study.It says severe weather events like the 2013 Uttarakhand floods and the 2018 floods in Kerala that claimed several lives were all due to severe Atmospheric Rivers (ARs).
The study, jointly conducted by Climate scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar, the National institute of technology, Srinagar, and the University of Washington, says a warming climate is increasing the moisture-holding capacity of Atmospheric Rivers, which leads to concerns about more devastating floods in the future.