Parts of southern Asia are still reeling from a pair of devastating storms that struck in late November, collectively killing more than 1,000 people and displacing more than 1 million. Cyclone Senyar made landfall in Indonesia and Malaysia on Nov. 26 and 27, while Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka on Nov. 27, bringing some of the worst flooding the country had seen in decades.
These disasters are part of an ongoing trend that’s worsening extreme rain across South and Southeast Asia, researchers say. New analysis from the climate science consortium World Weather Attribution suggests that both regions affected by the recent storms have seen an increase in the intensity of heavy rainfall events.
Since the preindustrial era, global temperatures have risen by about 1.3 degrees Celsius, or 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The Malacca Strait region, where Cyclone Senyar struck, has seen extreme rainfall levels increase by 9 to 50 percent over the same time period. And Sri Lanka’s extreme rainfall events have intensified by 28 to 160 percent.
Direct rainfall measurements prove these trends exist. But linking the patterns directly to climate change has proved trickier.
