Another flooding mega-disaster: Sri Lanka recovers from extreme flooding
At least 43 are dead and thousands still in refugee camps due to extreme flooding in eastern Sri Lanka caused by record monsoon rains. According to the United Nations, the rains in recent weeks in Sri Lanka have been the heaviest in nearly 100 years of record keeping, and the flood that resulted was a 1-in-100 year event, according to The U.N. Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System. Rainfall at Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, during the 42-day period December 1 - January 12 was 1606 mm (63"), which is about how much rain the station usually receives in an entire year (1651 mm, or 65".) Sri Lanka's previous most devastating flooding disaster was the 2004 tsunami, but as The Economist commented, "in terms of the numbers of people displaced and farmland inundated, the floods have been even more devastating than the tsunami of December 2004." Damage estimates start at $500 million, and much of Sri Lanka's agriculture has been severely damaged by the disaster. Also of concern is the large number of land mines from the recent Sri Lanka civil war that may have been unearthed by the floods. Water is also a major concern in the flood-hit area, as fighting between government forces and Tamil Tigers rebels from mid-2007 to May 2009 damaged or destroyed almost all of the water facilities.
Figure 1. A family affected by the 2011 Sri Lanka floods braves the flood waters. Image credit: United Nations.
Sri Lanka is now the fifth nation in the past six month to suffer a flooding disaster unprecedented in its history. As I reported in a previous post, the other four mega-impact floods--the July 2010 Pakistan floods, the December - January Queensland Australia floods, the November 2010 Colombia floods, and the January 2011 Rio de Janeiro floods--were all accompanied by an atmosphere laden with moisture, due, in part, due to sea surface temperatures over nearby ocean areas that were the 2nd or 3rd warmest on record. However, that was not the case for the Sri Lanka floods. Ocean temperatures during December 2010 were 0.2°C below average in the 5x5 degree square of ocean adjoining the island (5N - 10N, 80E - 85E). The floods appear to be due to the normal monsoon rains that typically affect the region this time of year, enhanced by the strong La Niña event occurring in the Eastern Pacific.
Figure 2. Satellite-estimated precipitation over Sri Lanka for January 3 - 9. Up to 18 inches (525 mm) fell over eastern Sri Lanka. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Maybe sun growth is causing the global warming.
Idaho, I seldom agree with you, but I like your sense of humor. I'll give you 10 points!
I always dump my extra ice on the ground, just to slow the warming. I call it localized man-made global cooling.
Heading to Henry's to Quaff a few.
Thank you, JFLORIDA. I greatly appreciate that.
You need the relief, we need the rain. That is as simple as it is, a lot of stuff here is turning brown, not good for South Florida.
Flooding in southern Africa claims over 50 lives
The forecast for all these places is for more rain .
Brisbane got 3 inches yesterday.
Flooding has returned to Sao Paulo
well,if I wasn't depressed by this weather before,I am now.Thanks!!
What? Don't back away on me now. I was just about to open my thesaurus!
Just kidding. Regardless of what you say, you do invoke thought. I appreciate that. Thanks.
More than half of Thailand's estimated 15,385 hectares of coral reefs died last year from bleaching, caused by unusually high water temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius that lasted for more than three months in the hot season.
Yes it will, but over billions of years and not over the few centuries we have been discussing.
Your tax dollars at work:
Link
Idaho computer geeks helped destroy uranium enrichment centrifuges in Iran....How funny is that?
But what if you used dry ice?
Well, at least not all of our tax dollars are wasted.
That's the second time you've asked that today. Here, try this link.
Really, what brings you to that conclusion.
I would bet that a 2 inch increase in the sun's diameter would heat things up by .1 C or whatever the consensus temp rise has been.
2-inches wider isn't much, especially right after the holidays
Dry ice would result in global drying, and I'm opposed to that.
OK, I'll bite. The Sun's approximate diameter is now 857,492.2 miles. What happens when you add 2 inches to that diameter?
That's great news to hear. Speaking of storms, the storm that's expected to shoot to the NE dumped 2' of snow out in Breckenridge. Great for the snowboarders and skiers.
5,280'/mile
12"/foot
12 x 5280 = 63,360
63,360 Why?
Hmmmmm. You would think it burn off the methane. LOL
L8R
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