Global Warming to Triple Frequency of Drought, Floods Along Indian Ocean

The frequency of extreme forms of a climate cycle that can cause devastating droughts and flood events from Indonesia to India to Kenya, may triple in the coming decades, according to a new study published Wednesday. The study, published in the journal Nature, ties manmade global warming to shifts in the behavior of a naturally-occurring climate cycle, known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).

Like the Pacific Ocean, which gives rise to El Niño and La Niña events, the Indian Ocean has its own inherent instability, with constant fluctuations between trade winds and sea surface temperatures across the ocean basin. These fluctuations, like oceanic and atmospheric mood swings, can interact in reinforcing feedback cycles, leading to positive or negative Dipole events that lead to huge changes in where it rains and how frequently and heavily it does so Read more...