Large parts of Pakistan's Sindh and Balochistan provinces are inundated by floodwaters, with normally dry land transformed into lakes when viewed from space. More than 1,000 people are dead, and 33 million affected after about eight weeks of heavy monsoonal rains.
The big picture: The scale and severity of this event are staggering, with the area and population affected exceeding the severity of disastrous flooding seen in 2010, which cost about $10 billion.
Fahad Saeed, a climate scientist at Climate Analytics who is based in Islamabad, told Axios that the floods have likely been worsened by human-caused climate change.
The 2010 extreme rains fell over the course of just three days, and hit a different part of the country, Saeed said, whereas this event was caused by relentless waves of heavy rains from the South Asian monsoon, which have been unusually prolific.
In Sindh Province, where Karachi is located, August precipitation has averaged about 470% of normal, with some spots seeing 40 inches or more since July 1, while in Balochistan, the rain during the past month has reached 400% of average, Saeed said, citing Pakistani government figures.
Threat level: Climate studies warn of back-to-back extreme weather events due to human-caused global warming, and Pakistan is Exhibit A.
Pakistan experienced a deadly heat wave in March and April that sent temperatures soaring above 120F.
The heat wave compromised the country’s wheat crop, and the floods will further lower wheat...
Read Full Story: https://www.axios.com/2022/08/31/pakistan-floods-unprecedented-scope-severity
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