Climate change increasing hailstorm frequency in Telangana?

Tuesday night’s hailstorm that lashed the city was not abnormality but need for studies confirming a relationship between climate change and frequency of hailstorms has been cited.

HYDERABAD: Tuesday night’s hailstorm that lashed the city was not abnormality but need for studies confirming a relationship between climate change and frequency of hailstorms has been cited.


Hailstorm is considered as an ‘extreme weather event’ due to the damage it causes, especially to farmland. 
During 2015-16, hailstorms destroyed crops worth `116 crores in Telangana. In states like UP and Rajasthan hailstorms caused losses above `6,000-7,000 crores f.

There are many research papers published in India and abroad that have suggested that climate change will result in frequent occurrence of extreme weather events like hailstorms, droughts and abnormally heavy rainfall.

However, there are not many papers which have established a direct relationship between climate change and hailstorms. Moreover, there have been a few studies which have proved that hailstorms have increased over the years. 


In a report published earlier by the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture on ‘Hailstorm threat to the Indian agriculture’ which compared hailstorms recorded in two different periods, one between 1898-1935 and the other between 1972-2011. It found that now, hailstorms covered more parts.  

India Meteorological Department, Pune published a study this year on hailstorms as part of which they studied the hailstorm pattern in the years 1981-2015. Study finds that in erstwhile AP, in the years 2013-2015, hailstorm days were between six to ten days in a year, a significant increase. Sunitha Devi, IMD Scientist, said that the rise can be explained by more areas are being covered now. 

Rain creates havoc in Bhupalpally villages
Bhupalpally:
Heavy rain accompanied with gales and lighting lashed some parts of Bhupalplally district, causing damage to crops and houses on Tuesday late night. According to sources, a house was completely damaged due to heavy gale in Kamalapur village of Bhupalpally mandal in the district.  

In the village, a few houses developed cracks and roofs of some houses were also damaged. Villagers spent a sleepless night as they feared that if their house collapsed they could get injured. Many huts in the village outskirts were completely destroyed.

In the same village, crops and horticulture produces were also damaged up to some extent. Villagers found that a few cattle sheds were also damaged.

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