Historic Monsoon Downpour in 2024: India's Heavy Rainfall since 2020's Records
In the summer of 2024, India experienced its heaviest monsoon season since 2020, breaking previous records and causing significant impacts on the economy, agriculture, infrastructure, and daily lives of millions of Indians.
The monsoon season, crucial for India's agriculture and water supply, saw precipitation levels exceed typical levels by 30-40%, establishing new records. This deluge was unusually severe in metropolitan regions, causing serious floods and disruptions in major urban communities such as Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai.
In Mumbai, road and rail connections were disrupted due to continuous flooding. Bengaluru experienced waterlogging, with neighborhoods submerged under several feet of water, particularly focusing on tech communities. Delhi's Yamuna River overflowed, displacing many people from low-lying areas.
For crops that thrive in wetter conditions, such as cotton, soybeans, and groundnuts, the rainfall was beneficial. However, extreme rainfall during the 2024 monsoon season destroyed crops such as sugarcane, rice, and pulses in some regions. Flooding at the Assamese Kaziranga National Park jeopardized the safety of species such as the one-horned rhinoceros.
The intensification of monsoon rains can be attributed to climate change, which has led to higher temperatures that increase atmospheric moisture. This leads to shorter but more intense rain events, shifts in monsoon timing and spatial patterns, and destabilizes traditional monsoon behavior. The increased moisture capacity of warmer air is a key driver behind the extreme monsoon weather seen in India in 2024.
Climate change has also caused modifications in standard barometric conditions, leading to an increase in extreme and unexpected storms in India. Critical landslides in the Himalayan and Western Ghats districts resulted in the loss of natural environments and woodland cover.
Approximately 70% of India's population relies on agriculture for their livelihood. The majority of agricultural land in India is rain-fed, making it highly vulnerable to the unpredictable nature of the monsoon. The 2024 monsoon caused widespread damage to agricultural land, particularly in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal due to flood-like conditions.
The intensity of the 2024 monsoon sparked questions about India's preparedness and ability to handle similar disasters in the future. The Indian Meteorological Division (IMD) indicated that the 2024 monsoon was the heaviest to ever hit India, underscoring the need for improved infrastructure and disaster management strategies to protect India's people and economy from the impacts of climate change.
- The unusual severity of the 2024 monsoon season, which was attributed to climate change, raised concerns about the influence of environmental science on weather patterns, specifically in relation to climate-change-induced weather forecasting.
- Despite the challenges faced by the agriculture sector due to the extreme monsoon rains in 2024, it also brought opportunities for crops like cotton, soybeans, and groundnuts that thrive in wetter conditions. Meanwhile, sports-betting activity might have been affected, as unexpected weather conditions could influence the outcomes of sports events.
- Recognizing the impacts of climate change on weather patterns, investing in environmental-science research and development could provide insights vital to adapting to extreme weather events, such as improving weather-forecasting systems to minimize disruptions in sports and sports-betting, as well as strengthening infrastructure and disaster management strategies to protect people and new technological hubs in cities like Bengaluru from future natural disasters.
