Climate change: Maharashtra’s extreme temperatures, rainfalls, cyclones rise 1.5 times more than average

MUMBAI: Like most parts of the globe, the climate change has triggered the temperatures across Maharashtra almost three times the usual over 24 days with the overall summer-monsoon (June to August) season witnessing a rise of 1.5 times of the average climate activities such as rainfall and wind triggered by the heat.
The overall departure of long-term average temperature during the season was 0.8 degrees celsius i.e nearly one degree above (0.2 degrees less). Climate change is nothing but a situation wherein the natural processes such as temperature, rainfall, wind and other elements vary or become extreme due to human-induced activities such as carbon emission or high surface temperatures (due to increasing constructions).
These observations have come from the analysis by Climate Central, a non-advocacy, non-profit science and news organization that provides authoritative information to help the public and policymakers make sound decisions about climate and energy. Earth just had its hottest Northern Hemisphere summer on record, and many parts of the globe experienced record-shattering and dangerous heat from June through August.
During the summer of 2023, Maharashtra had 24.1 days with a Climate Shift Index (CSI) of 3, which means climate change made the high temperature and temperature-based climatic conditions at least three times more likely, the analysis said. CSI is a tool that quantifies the contribution of climate change to daily temperatures.
“The average CSI during the entire season was 0.9. A CSI value of 1 means climate change made the conditions at least 1.5 times more likely. The average temperature anomaly, a departure from a long-term average, during the season was 0.8 degree Celsius,” the analysis said. CSI levels from 1 to 5 indicate that human-caused climate change has made the observed or forecasted temperatures more likely or, equivalently, more common.
Globally the countries with the lowest historical emissions experienced three to four times higher seasonal temperatures this June-August than G20 countries (the world’s largest economies). Not one of 180 countries and 22 territories in a Climate Central attribution analysis of global temperatures escaped the influence of climate change between June and August 2023. Approximately 7.95 billion people–98 percent of the entire human population–experienced temperatures that were made at least two times more likely by heat-trapping carbon pollution in Earth’s atmosphere during the hottest boreal summer in recorded history, the global analysis suggested.
“Virtually no one on Earth escaped the influence of global warming during the past three months,” Dr. Andrew Pershing, Climate Central’s vice president for science, said. “In every country we could analyze, including the southern hemisphere where this is the coolest time of year, we saw temperatures that would be difficult–and in some cases nearly impossible–without human-caused climate change. Carbon pollution is clearly responsible for this season’s record-setting heat.”
Heat at CSI level 3 or higher persisted for at least half the June-August period in 79 countries throughout Central America, the Caribbean, the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of Africa. States and regions within several G20 countries had notable exposure to climate-driven heat. At least half of all June-August days were a CSI level 3 or higher in: Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Mexico, 11 Indian states (Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar, Meghalaya, Goa, Karnataka, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, and Tamil Nadu), and five Brazilian states (Amapá, Roraima, Pará, Amazonas, and Acre).