The report discusses the climate condition over Indian region during the year 2023. Notably, global temperatures soared to exceptionally high levels during this period (WMO.No.1347). The India Meteorological Department continuously monitors weather and climate over Indian region. The annual mean land surface air temperature averaged over India during 2023 was …
Kashmir floods and Cyclone Hudhud caused loss of USD 18 billion and have been the most economically costly event in 2014 reveals this latest edition of Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report. 258 global natural disasters in 2014 caused economic losses of USD132 billion says the report. This report evaluates …
Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2014 is the quadrennial report of the Scientific Assessment Panel (SAP) of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The SAP assesses the state of the depletion of the ozone layer and relevant atmospheric science issues every four years and provides Parties …
Delhi Statistical Hand Book-2014 is the 39th issue being published by Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. This publication contains data relating to various Socio-economic parameters in respect of NCT of Delhi. Data is presented under 23 broad chapters.
The separate and combined effects of different drivers of change to water fluxes and resources on land (CWOL) remain difficult to distinguish and largely unknown, particularly at a global scale. Our study analyzes CWOL during the period 1901–2008, based on available hydroclimatic data for up to 859 hydrological basins. We …
The year 2014 is on track to be one of the hottest, if not the hottest, on record, according to preliminary estimates by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This is largely due to record high global sea surface temperatures, which will very likely remain above normal until the end of …
Trend in North Atlantic tropical cyclone frequency is subject to uncertainties related mainly to observational deficiencies. These uncertainties make assessments of anthropogenic effects on present and future trends problematic. Here we document that, contrary to received opinion, ship numbers actually peaked in the mid-nineteenth century and reached a minimum in …
Assessing potential climate effects of natural gas versus coal electricity generation is complicated by the large number of factors reported in life cycle assessment studies, compounded by the large number of proposed climate metrics. Thus, there is a need to identify the key factors affecting the climate effects of natural …
Understanding why some areas are more vulnerable to invasion by invasive alien species than others represents a key challenge in invasion biology. We investigated the roles of landscape, climate, proximity to initial invasion sites, recording intensity and colour pattern polymorphism in explaining the spread of the invasive ladybird Harmonia axyridis …
AHMEDABAD: Gujarat weather is marked by an arid and dry climate. But what kind of whether existed more than 10,000 years back? Various studies suggest that the state had a slightly wetter climate more than 10,000 years back, say experts from Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Based on botanical remains …
Traditional architectural principles always respected nature, and was climate conscious, user-friendly, reflected the culture and tradition of the community at large and most important was contextual. Various parameters such as geographical location, climatic conditions, occupation, culture and tradition of the society/ community decide these principles in a specific set up …
Based on 56 rainfall stations, which cover the period 1961–2008, we analyzed the presence of trends in the drought-affected area over southern South America (SSA) at different time scales. In order to define drought conditions, we used the standardized precipitation index, which was calculated on time scales of 1, 3, …
Daily rainfall totals are analyzed for the main agro-climatic zones of Sri Lanka for the period 1976–2006. The emphasis is on daily rainfall rather than on longer-period totals, in particular the number of daily falls exceeding given threshold totals. For one station (Mapalana), where a complete daily series is available …
Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long-term forest dynamics research sites (CTFS-ForestGEO) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change. Within very …
Frontal convection (FC) and diurnal convection (DC) are the two most frequently observed weather systems affecting the pre-summer (May and June, MJ) rainfall formation over Taiwan and Southeast China. Focusing on the time period of 1982–2012 MJ months, this study found that the occurrence frequency of FC has declined, but …
Groundwater is essential to modern human survival during drought periods. There is also growing geological evidence of springs associated with stone tools and hominin fossils in the East African Rift System (EARS) during a critical period for hominin evolution (from 1.8 Ma). However it is not known how vulnerable these …
Shale resources are unevenly distributed worldwide and, for the most part, not located where freshwater is abundant. For example, China, Mexico, and South Africa have some of the largest technically recoverable shale gas resources (based on estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration), but face high to extremely high water …
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) has released a report, titled ‘Time to Act – To reduce short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs).' The report details the causes and sources of SLCPs, and outlines the potential benefits of control measures. According to the report, SLCPs are …
Urbanisation modifies landscapes at multiple scales, impacting the local climate and changing the extent and quality of natural habitats. These habitat modifications significantly alter species distributions and can result in increased abundance of select species which are able to exploit novel ecosystems. We examined the effect of urbanisation at local …
In many Western populations, blood pressure varies moderately with season and outdoor temperature. Relatively little is known about effects of seasonal changes in blood pressure on the detection and control of hypertension in general populations, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The researchers analysed cross-sectional data of 57 375 (42% …
Mexico is planning to revise its existing emissions standards for diesel heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). The existing regulation, Norma Oficial Mexicana 044 (NOM 044), requires new vehicles to meet either U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2004 or Euro IV standards. Revisions to NOM 044 standards will require manufacturers of new heavy-duty …
